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LIVING WOEDS. 




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ING WORDS, 



BY 



E^'h. CHAPIN, D.D. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER, 

BY 

REV. T. S. KING. 



- A 



o'\ 



"Jewels five words long, 
That on the stretched fore-finger of all time 
Sparkle forever." 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY A. TOMPKINS, 

33 & 40 COENHIIL. 

CFwOSBY, NICHOLS, LEE & CO., 117 WASHINGTON ST. 
1860. 



• 



> v 



* <3k \ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

A. TOMPKINS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



Transfer 

AftPy War College 

June 20 1933 



Stereotyped bj 

Edward P. Fox and Dillingham A Piniert,, 

41 Cougreas St., Boston. 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



San Francisco, Oct., 1860, 
My dear Mr. Tompkins : 

I have just received your note, asking me to furnish a short preface 
to the volume of selections from the writings of Dr. Chapin, which 
you are about to publish. In order to fulfil your request, I must write 
a few lines without delay, and hurry them off by Pony Express to 
Boston ; so that if these words reach you, and are accepted, you must 
give thanks, not to the plodding mail stage, nor to the circuitous 
steamers, but to the flying courier who, down snowy slopes of the 
Sierras, across desolate plains, at the risk of rifle-shot or deadly arrow 
from the Indians, and over passes of the Rocky Mountains, takes a 
direct line for the queen city of the Mississippi, and connects us by 
letter with the coast of Massachusetts, in fourteen days. 

A great distance to send for an introductory word ! But our 

affections, thank Heaven, are not cooled by thousands of miles of 

space. You could easily have found some one nearer home who would 

have written a more fitting preface ; but you could not, I am sure, 

find one who would prize more highly the privilege of connecting his 

name with a volume destined to such wide service ; and I know that 

it would be difficult for you to find one who would write with heartier 

friendship for the publisher, or with more cordial admiration for the 

genius of Dr. Chapin. 

1* 



6 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 

There are some men through whom the Spirit pours " a sound from 
heaven, SB of a rushing mighty wind." I have been moved by 
Dr. Chapin, in recent years, as many thousands have been, in the 
midst of great assemblies, when the cloven tongue of fire sat upon his 
soul, and the divine afflatus moved through his nature, as a gust 
through an organ. All that his conscious thought did was to touch 
the keys. The volume, and swell, and sweep of the music were of 
the Holy Ghost, flowing now in a wild surge through his passionate 
imagination, and waking the noblest chords of the religious nature in 
his hearers to devout joy, — now in a simple passage of melody from 
his heart, plaintive and tender, that persuaded tears from the sternest 
eye. He has seemed to me, then, to be not a single nature, but the 
substance of a hundred souls compacted into one, to be used as an 
inspiring instrument in the service of the loftiest truth. 

And yet it is not in recognition simply of his eloquent genius that 
I rejoice here to associate for a moment my name with these thoughts 
of his ; nor is it to confess the delight of his friendship, through the 
years of my ministry ; nor to pay tribute to his fidelity, through 
various lines of reading, in enriching and enlarging his powers for 
the service of Christ. I am glad, rather, to confess indebtedness to 
him as my earlier friend ; to utter feelings warmer than admiration 
to my pastor in youth ; and to acknowledge with gratltute that I 
have brought something substantial from him with me to this distant 
field ; since the fervor, the splendor, the pathos, and the spiritual 
simplicity of his preaching, twenty years ago, are not memories 
merely, but influences, — permanent lights and forces of the inner 
life, — for which, granted through him by Providence, I must stand 
responsible. 

Each new volume by Dr. Chapin has borne testimony to advancing 
and ripening power. This one, doubtless, will show more potently 
than any other which the public has seen the breadth and vigor of 
the intellectual gifts which he has so faithfully dedicated. Books 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 7 

of this character are peculiarly adapted to our American hurry and 
impatience of elaborate and artistic address. Very often the best 
thing in a sermon or speech — the only original paragraph or pas- 
sage — is an illustration or an aphorism, or a sudden gleam of 
imagination, which condenses the meaning of the discourse, or sets 
an old truth at an angle where it glows like a gem. Whoever 
masters this one passage holds the value of the whole effort. The 
richest minds of the pulpit are those which sprinkle their pages most 
freely with these seed-thoughts, or from whose extempore utterance 
can be caught the most of the sentences which are lenses for the rays 
of Christian truth. Diffuseness is especially the vice of pulpit-speech. 
The formula which Carlyle stated as to books is peculiarly true of 
sermons: "Given a cubic inch of respectable Castile soap, to lather 
it up in water, so as to fill one puncheon, wine-measure." Volumes 
like Mr. Beecher's "Life Thoughts" save for us the solid matter, 
and give us what is vital in the preacher, disengaged from what is 
mechanical. There are comparatively few who can bear this test of 
husking off the accessories, and selecting only the original germ- 
passages which are quickened by the preacher's own insight and 
experience. The poverty of many a fair-looking discourse is patent 
when this process is tried upon it. 

The volume of selections from Dr. Chapin's sermons and writings 
will show, I am sure, that his mind is one of the richest, as well as 
that his heart is one of the most fervent and simplest that is now in 
communion, as a preacher, with our American life. He is a thinker, 
as well as a prophet. The " word of wisdom " is granted to him by 
the same Spirit that has given him "faith ;" and the volume will be 
of large usefulness, I am confident, in our country. It will be wel- 
comed heartily and widely in this new State. In the mining regions, 
among the fort-hills of the Sierras, in huts amid the rocky grandeurs 
of the Yo-Semite, I have heard men speak in gratitude of sermons 
heard, years ago, in New York, from Dr. Chapin. They will be glad 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 

to be able to got 90 close to his mind and heart as the book for which 
I am writing these lines will conduct them ; and it will help them 
and all of us that read it to appreciate the simplicity and strength of 
the Christian faith. For it will fulfil the purpose which Sir Thomas 
Browne desired, when he said, "Since instructions are so many, we 
should hold close unto those whereon the rest depend ; so we may 
have all in a few, and the law and the prophets in a rule ; the Sacred 
Writ in stenography, and the Scripture in a nutshell." 

"With strong desire to see the volume, and the fervent wish that it 
may address as many readers as its merits will deserve, — a wisb 
which, if fulfilled, would satisfy any publisher, — I remain 

Your distant friend, 

T. S. KING. 



PREFACE. 



While listening to the thrilling utterances, or pausing over 
the inspiring pages of this celebrated divine, the compiler of 
this work has often felt that a collection of this kind would 
be to many an invaluable treasure. His own desire for it 
has led him to indulge the hope that many of Dr. Chapin's 
numerous friends would cordially welcome it, and that it 
might prove a means, to some extent, of acquainting others 
with his genius. In connection with his brilliancy of intel- 
lect, poetic fancy, and rare eloquence of diction, will be found 
evidence of a catholic and genial spirit, — a large and loving 
heart, — which, after all, is the best title to our admiration, 
— the golden key to our best sympathies and purest emotions, 
and the surest basis of a noble and enduring; fame. 

These selections have been taken from Dr. Chapin's pub- 
lished works, anniversary and other speeches, orations, lectures, 
and extemporaneous sermons. I would tender acknowledg- 
ments to the Rev. Henry Lyon, of New York, for the use he 



10 PREFACE. 

has permitted me to make of the volumes of which he is the 
publisher, — one of which, " Select Sermons," I think the 
ablest of Dr. Chapin's works, and perhaps, upon the whole, 
the noblest contribution to this kind of literature that has 
been published in America. 

I have not, in every instance, selected the most beautiful 
and brilliant passages; but what I thought would be most 
likely to interest, please, and profit the reader. Deeply con- 
scious of my liability to err in judgment, I yet hope that 
in most instances my choice will be approved by those best 
qualified to render a just verdict. I cannot more appropri- 
ately bring this preface to a close than by saying, in the lan- 
guage of our gifted author, " May God pardon the evil which 
has mingled with my labor, and may he bless my work." 

November, 1860. 



INDEX. 



"Abide with us," 204-5. 

Ability to do, how acquired, 193. 

Abraham (Isaac, Jacob), 159, 336. 

Abstractions move the world, 91. 

Action, moral, 208 ; and inaction, 350. 

Adversity, uses of, 148-9. 

Affection, office of, 63 ; power of. 77 ; 
chemistry of right, 116 ; in all, 134 ; 
of earth in heaven, 262 5 deathless, 327. 

Affliction, the right use of, 185 5 an agent, 
not an end, 327. 

Africa, bleeding, 268 5 plains of, 318. 

Age, the golden, 38 ; of lyrics, 221. 

Aged Christian, 26 5 and young, 249. 

Ages, striking for all, 28 5 touching all, 
29 5 all in each, 182 ; Christ and the, 
274. 

Alphabet, the, and the nebulEe, 154. 

America, the work of, 125 ; our duty, 126 5 
Christ speaks to people of, 273 5 young 
men of, 352. 

Amusement, 70 ; and religion, 216. 

Angelo, and the Christian ideal, 174. 

Angels, heralds of peace, 53 ; fallen, 66 ; 
wings, rush of, 168 ; and men — land- 
ing-place of, 180 ; we may become, 195 ; 
of hope, 225 •, privilege of, 295. 

Annihilation, sorrow no proof of, 44, 121. 

Anthems of the church, old, 194. 

Aphelion, we can never touch our, 173. 

Apocalypse to nature's genesis, 169. 

Appetite, how subdued, 98 5 unduly ex- 
alted, 115 ) fools of, 252. 



Art, Heathen and Christian, 174, 176 ', 
and nature— representing spiritual sub- 
stance, 191 ; expression of power in, 
321. 

Ascetic, the, and the sensualist, 98. 

Astronomy, 72 ; and power of mind, 158 ) 
Christianity likened to, 353. 

Atheism not natural to man, 341. 

Atmosphere of different men, 183. 

Atoms, rebellion of anarchy, 131 ; none 
useless, 217 ; or insignificant, 350. 

Aurora, power shining in, 154. 

Autumn and old age, 76 ; phase of nature, 
292 ; of the year, of life, 330. 

Baca, valley of, how lighted, 192. 
Bacon, the influence- of, 71, 332. 
Bapcist, the, 38 ) robe of immersion, 51. 
Barnacle, living like a, 246. 
Barnacles on ship or sect, 220. 
Beatitudes, the, not mottoes for war, 262. 
Beautiful, the, useful, 64 *, the ocean is, 

93 ; the stars are, 163 ; truth, where 

most, 218 ; flowers, 340 5 music, 354. 
Beauty, our sense of, 86 •, why abundant, 

340 ; like a flower, 351. 
Beggar, greatness of the, 88 5 akin to God, 

194, 234. 
Being, a miserable, 70 ; and doing, 102 5 

end of, how fulfilled, 172 ; the power of, 

319 5 illimitable, 333. 
Belief in God, basis of, 111. 
Beneficent, order is, 211 j the inevitable 



12 



INDEX. 



is, '202. 295 ; purpose in all change, 
880. 

Bereavement, meaning of, 1S6. 
Bible, how to judge the, 88 ; a sufficiency 
in, 85; and ledger, 68; and science, 105; 

a mirror, chart, etc., 211 ; read back- 
ward. 218 ; like nature, 272 ; how to 
show respect for, 319 ; the greatest of 
books. 852. 

Bigots, knowing it and sorry for it, 125. 
'.warts the soul, 231. 

Bird, comfort for the, 53 ; ever the same, 
167 •, an illustration of Providence, 277; 
the soul like a wandering, 291. 

Birth-right, the divine, 34. 

Blessed are they that mourn, why, 145. 

Blindness, physical and moral, 37, 254. 

Book of character, 84 ; of Ecclesiastes, 190. 

Books like wondrous mirrors, 329. 

Boston, council in and Hancock, 155. 

Boy, a, should be like a cat, 88. 

Brain, the, and the heart, 196. 

Bravery and cowardice, 124. 

Bread, by sweat or otherwise? 205. 

Brooklyn, the preacher of, 312. 

Brotherhood, the doctrine of, 105. 

Bruce, the heart of and of Christ, 99. 

Business, the helm of, 30 ; not all-import- 
ant, 42 ; intercourse, condition of, 50 ; 
conscience and Sunday, 63 ; standards 
of, 103 ; and religion, 283. 

Butterfly, the simile of, 258 ; God near to 
the, 271. 

Byron and his imitators, 49. 

Ccesar and Christianity, 109, 290. 
Caesars and Napoleons, fall back, 138. 
Call, every man has a, 197, 217. 
Calvary, going with Christ to, 166. 
Calvinism, objections to, 345. 
Campaign of God, conscripts in, 252. 
Cancer, compromising with a, 246. 
Capital, life true, 84 ; nature fixed, man 

speculative, 199. 
Carolina, breezes from Maine to, 146. 
Catholic, the, 51 ; Roman, complexity, 

247 ; service, 318. 
Century, the man of the 19th, 87 ; the 

sky of the 19th, 313. 
Chance, made a servitor, 76 ; or debt? 78. 



Charming, Plato, etc., how to be, 559. 

Character, the book of, 84 ; weight of, 94 , 
test of, 116 ; the true basis of, 177 ; 
greater than circumstances, 1S4. 

Charity, where shown, 169 ; by whom 
possessed, 2S6. 

Cheating and being cheated, 313. 

Child, in the grave, 81 ; laid to rest, 113 $ 
death of a, 186 ; mercy to the, 210 ; 
grief of the, 237 ; mission of — death 
of, 300 ; the weak loved most, 311 ; face 
of in death, 353. 

Childhood and flowers, 342. 

Childlike, the Christian spirit is, 214. 

Child's delight and grief, 237. 

Chivalry, a recognized, 230 ; lack of, 240 ; 
work of modern, 276. 

Christ, the confidence of, 48 ; the influ- 
ence of, 49 ; life of — end of all, 88 j 
the cup — his prayer, 96 ; the heart of, 
99 ; and the miracles, 103 ; giving life, 
108 ; no room for, 110 ; and Socrates, 
122 ; what he requires, 123 ; rested 
upon the truths of nature, 133 ; the 
grandeur of, 138 ; the impulse of his 
life, 141 ; our example, 141 ; his per- 
sonal action — his agency, 142 ; what 
he has done, 143 ; a revelation — his 
power, 144 ; and Christianity, 145 ; his 
birth, 146 ; his illustration of sorrow, 
150 ; the cross and crown of, 162 ; the 
essence of all law, 164 ; Son of God — 
of Man, 166 ; his work, 166 ; alone 
fills the demand for truth, 170 ; his 
mercy — man's selfishness, 171 ; his 
personality demonstrated, 176 ; love of 
the true basis of character, 177 ; not 
degraded by mockery, 184 ; what he 
saw in this world, 190 ; despised not 
the world, 192 : found in us, 193 ; and 
the Christ-like soul, 199 ; his law the 
basis of a better state, 200 ; and woman, 
201 ; " abide with us," 204-5 ; crowned 
with thorns, 212 ; what his cross was, 
is, 213 ; the weeping, 214 ; a revelation 
of the Father, 214 ; his spirit the spring 
of power, 217 ; loving him in the true 
sense, 224 ; need of communion with, 
229 ; and geologist, ethnologist, 232 ; 
searching for the heart, 242 ; the source 



INDEX. 



13 



cf opinion for the church, 247 ; real 
homage to, 248 3 in civilization, 249 ; 
walked death's bridge, 257 5 likened to 
a spring day, 268 ; teachings of not 
gloomy, 209 5 his spirit and mission, 
270 3 the only manifestation of God the 
Father, 271 ; riding through the ages 
in triumph, 274 5 honored by a long 
retinue, 274 5 in the Jerusalem of toil 
and traffic, ^275 3 the of our youth on 
the sea of death, 275 ; sank an artesian 
well, 275 5 his words surpass all others, 
276-7 3 represented in the pulpit, 278 5 
as a vision of glory, 279 5 and the 
church, 284 3 Polycarp's testimony, 

289 ; the priests, doctors, and Caesar, 

290 3 his spirit — the future state, 291 ; 
assurance of immortality, 294 3 gather- 
ing in one all things in, 307 3 example 
of in Gethsemane, 308 5 none can dis- 
fellowship from, 312 ; died for us, 314 ; 
expressed God's love for the sinful, 
315 ; the honors due to, 318 3 turned 
out of doors, 322 ; who are near to, 
348 ; close to humanity, 356 ; how 
best honored, 357 ; his cross interprets 
nature, 359 ; how he comes again, 360. 

Christian, an aged, 26 ; in his spirit a 
spring-tide, 27 5 union, 50 5 philan- 
thropy, the tide of, 61 3 completion of 
life like October glory, 76 5 condition 
of being a — life, prize of the, 134 ; 
view of life, 168 ; results in the "soul, 
172 3 and Heathen art, 174, 176 ; faith 
in old age, 204 ; disposition, the, child- 
like, 214 3 law, effect of the, 266 ; the, 
often appears anomalous, 297 3 quali- 
ties of a true, 320 ; stony fruit, 348 3 
literature, the worst kind of, 354. 

Christianity the world's hope, 40 ; the 
only basis of a rational life, 47 ; in 
every denomination, 50 5 is a life, 53 ; 
and reformers, 54 ; the life and power 
of, 62 5 fluent, eternal, 92 ; limitless, 
97 ; its nature and results, 102 ; its 
influence, 105 ; progressive, 106 ; a 
farce, 107 ; and Caesar, 109 ; cotton- 
bag, 123 3 the true conserving and de- 
veloping powers, 127 3 effects of, 139 5 
the prime object of, 140 ; its influence 

2 



on the ages, 141 ; illustrated for us, 
142-3 ; a system of life, 144 ; without 
Christ, 145 ; test of its excellence, 149 ; 
how revealed, 150 ; how it regards evil, 
153 ; apocalypse to nature's genesis, 
169 } the change produced by. 170 j 
Heathen need of, 174 ; like attraction, 
175 3 a witness to, 176 3 has made mar- 
tyrdom sublime, 192 5 the light and 
life, 194 ; the oracles of and of free- 
dom, 227 ; to comfort the soul, 232 ; a 
golden ladder, 233 5 Christ's, 235 5 leads 
to freedom, 245 5 the of our age, 287 3 
how it meddles with institutions, and 
dims kings' crowns, 290 5 the value of 
historical, 294 ; its transmuting power, 
297 ; interprets spiritual, 299 ; its 
glory, 310 ; a revelation — not a revo° 
lution, 315 ; its platform and prospects, 
341 5 stony fruit imitations of, 348 ; is 
a spirit, 349 3 the true idea of, 353 5 
like astronomy, 353 3 its comprehen- 
siveness, 356 3 planks not in its plat- 
form, 358 5 and nature, 359. 

Christmas, what right to celebrate ? 117 3 
Hymn, 118 3 Sabbath, 146. 

Church, the and ministers, 66 3 " the 
seed of the," 71 ; for the soul, 88 ; its 
bells chime-bells, 146 ; the true, a vital 
heart, 203 ; standard, the true, 284. 

Citizenship, the rights of, 165. 

City and country, 67, 287. 

Civilization, the agents of, 157 ; our, due 
to Christ, 249 5 follows labor, 285 3 a 
better from decay, 331. 

Clergyman, and Christ, respect for, 322. 

Coals on an enemy's head, 205. 

College, the question concerning, 85. 

Cologne-water to quench Vesuvius, 88. 

Columbus finds a world, 26 ; of the skies, 
a, 87 ; enterprise of, 226 ; possible, 165. 

Come in, who, and when, 43. 

Comet, the, made an index, 158. 

Communion of the Eternal, 203 3 hours 
of, 221 ; with God, 238 3 the mount of, 
288. 

Complexion, unsubstantial, 252. 

Condition, improvement of, 60 ; how 
tested, 126 ; changes of, crises, 257. 

Conqueror, the and the laborer, 137. 



u 



INDEX. 



Conscience and business, 63 ; thunder of, 
107 ; clipping, 119 •, and the Presi- 
dency, 122 ; dead as a stone, 151 ; re- 
gard to, 906. 

Conscripts in G >d's campaign, 252. 

Conservative, the, and truth, 65, 91, 173. 

Constitution, danger to the, 126 ; a, not 
freedom, 131. 

Contentment, blessings of, 116. 

Convictions, loyalty to a duty, 51 ; test 
of genuine, 55. 

Copernicus without a telescope, 120. 

Courage, when greatest, 61 ; danger with 
— Socrates — Christ, 122. 

Court dress, Franklin's, 230. 

Cowardice, vs. bravery, 124 ; no virtue, 
25S. 

Creed, the, of the true saint, 85. 

Crises of existence, the, 257. 

Criticism of Christianity, 142. 

Cross, the love of the, 72 ; an instrument 
of victory, 115 •, the central light, 162 ; 
no light shall eclipse the, 166 ; the love 
shown on the, 188 ; its significance and 
influence, 213 ; the Southern, 268 ; the 
interprets nature, 359. 

Crown, who wins the, 50 ; the brightest in 
heaven, 180 5 of thorns, 212. 

Crowns, kings' dimmed in Christ's light, 
290 5 come, if God gives them, 291. 

Crystal Palace, nature's, 191. 

Day, a, what it is, 25 •, evening of the, 
334 ; the close of, 335. 

Deafness, what it is, 254. 

Death, physical and spiritual, 37 ; a re- 
vealer, 56 ; appeals to charity, 60 ; the 
condition of a higher life, 73 ; sense of 
life in, 151 ; of a community, 152 ; a 
transition, 164 ; between mother and 
child, 186 ; that shakes us so, 204 5 
what it is, 254 ; a physical change, 257; 
Christ with us in, 275 ; baptism into 
life through the shadow of, 296 ; a 
sleep, 297-8 •, of a child, 300 ; a trans- 
itional process, 330 ; the shadow of fast 
coming, 338. 

Debt, not chance, 78. 

Decalogue, how to measure the, 218 ; 
written on a dime, 329. 



Declaration of Independence, 129, 130, 

229, 290. 
Degeneracy the oldest of cries, 339. 
Delaware, Penn's treaty and the, 265. 
Delirium tremens of patriotism, 126. 
Delusion, the, of all ages, 151. 
Democracy, the Idea at the core of, 227. 
Depravity, how seen, 30 5 the best type 

of, 248 ; why lament ? 307 ; the worst 

manifestation of, 350. 
Desecration of God's image, 328. 
Design, proof of, 159 ; a beneficent, 292 ; 

indications of, 325. 
Despair, 84 ; when not to, 226. 
Despotism, the elements of, 106. 
Destiny, wisdom weaves the cycle of, 

304 ; nature suggests a higher, 325* 
Devil, how the comes, 81 ; nature, 87 ; his 

allies, 87 } the sin of the, 312. 
Diamond, one flash reveals the, 32. 
Die, we must alone, 40. 
Difficult things useful, 98 ; providential, 

189. 
Dignity not compromised, 352. 
Disappointment, uses of, 14S-9 ; drives us 

to God 5 172 ; and achievement, 303. 
Discipline of life, the, 121 ; meaning of, 

147 ; spiritual, solemn, 155. 
Discovery and the chain of order, 80. 
Disposition, blessings of a contented, 116 5 

to do, more than power, 327. 
Distinctions, what they prove, 319. 
Doing and being, 102 ; as we like, 256. 
Dollar, a, and the disc of eternity, 45. 
Doubt and faith, 65, 84. 
Douglass and the heart of Bruce, 99. 
Drunkard, the, boasting of freedom, 36. 
Duty, the voice of disregarded, 29 ; the 

most important, 51 ; the most solemn, 

155 ; every, great, 161, 164 ; the spirit 

of, 172 ; the true sphere of, 200 ; the 

post of, 201, 205. 

Earth, its tombs, 67; a cradle, 97; a 
minim, 174 ; one family, 234 ; affec- 
tions of in heaven, 262 ; holds a record 
of beneficent law, 292 ; its generations 
like harvests, 330. 

Ease, the man of not so easy, 284. 

Easter morning, the bells of, 110. 



INDEX. 



16 



Ecclesiastes, the Book of, 190. 

Economy of life — of living, 74. 

Eden and the golden age, 38 3 condition 
of rest in, 269 3 the innocence of, 308. 

Education leads to larger life, 332. 

Eggs, hearers likened to, 358. 

Elijah clothed with celestial radiance, 
159. , 

Eloquence a kindling process, 302. 

Empires like forests, 330. 

End, nothing in itself an, 302. 

Endurance and achievement, 187 ; the 
power of, 321, 322 •, the soul possessed 
with like the moon, 324. 

England, the Bank of, 67 3 an influence, 
71 } the American idea in, 227. 

English tongue, the, 129 ; history, 296. 

Environments, nothing, 44. 

Error, nothing so fluent as, 91. 

Esau, the hands of, 312. 

Essence, a whiskered, 57. 

Eternal shore, the, 67 ; the sublimest 
creation of the, 166 } and temporal, 
350. 

Eternity, a wave from the sea of, 40 } disc 
of hid by a dollar, 45 ; the ages of and 
the morning stars, 158 ; a ceaseless 
growth, 195 5 a symbol of, 335. 

Ethnology, 72, 232, 344. 

Europe, the balance of, 85 3 sown with 
gunpowder, 87 3 mind gone out in, 
296. 

Evangelists, the leaves of the, 100. 

Evening of the day, the, 334 ; of life, 
338. 

Events, the current of, 47 ; are governed, 
60 j the shells of ideas, 123. 

Evil, a shadow. 90 3 to overcome, 96 3 how 
seen aright, 112 ; the Christian must 
conquer, 134 ; a reality, 153 ; origin and 
use of, 168 3 no unmitigated, 188 ; not 
permanent, 198 3 degrees of, 258 ; God 
against all, 268 5 love around all, 304 * 
speaking, effects of ; 355 ; not final. 
35S. 

Evils, their limits — point of cure, 62. 

Exchange, nature a system of, 70. 

Existence, wisely considered. 77 ; we can- 
not doubt a spiritual, 123. 

Expediency, 216 3 danger of, 221. 



Eye, the insect's, 83 3 the, and the soul, 
101, 187 ; useless in darkness, 159. 

Faculty, the inward reliable, 79. 

Failure, not always evidence of sin, 43 5 
success grows out of, 303. 

Faith looking up, 30 5 and logic, 43 3 and 
action, 46 ; the telegraph of, 50 ; in de- 
feat, 52 5 of development, 98 ; demand 
for, 154 ; and mystery, 156 •, and per- 
ception, 168 •, changes the cloud, 183 ; 
intelligent — cheerful, 198 3 the glass of, 
231 3 the privilege of, 295 5 suggested 
by nature, 325 3 everything rests upon, 
326. 

Faithfulness, test of, 99. 

Falsehood, clattering locomotive, a, 177. 

Fame, the penalty of, 96. 

Family, the, a ship, 56 5 value of the, 
59. 

Fanatic, the, and the disputant, 32. 

Fanaticism, religious and worldly, 246 j 
proves religion real, 308. 

Fanueil Hall — Plymouth Rock, 94. 

Fashion the science of appearances, 167. 

Fatalism not resignation, 197. 

Father, the love of the, 113 5 a permanent 
relation, 165 ; all can say " Our," 234, 
235 } One God the, 345. 

Fatherhood of God, the, 235, 271. 

Feeling and intellect, 196 3 and thought 
in religion, 222. 

Fellowship asked of no one, 312. 

Flowers always appropriate, 342. 

Fools of appetite, 252. 

Formality, danger of, 219. 

Fortune, the loss of, 104. 

Franklin's patent of nobility, 230. 

Freedom, the charter of personal, 34 3 
true, 36 } God's work, 93 5 and slavery, 
131 5 effects of real, 173 ; limits of, 306. 

Free-will, the glory and danger of, 258. 

French Revolution, the old, 120. 

Fruit, stony Christians, 343. 

Future, the, and present, 170 ; and 
young men, 249 ; state, the glory of, 
291. 

Gamester, a, 42 ; pictures of his life, 255. 
Gamesters are we all, 196. 



16 



INDEX. 



Gayety, i reckless ripple, 2SS. 

Genesis, and pre Adamite aires, 105 ; the 
A] I ".ire's, 109. 

Genius, the inspirations of, 49 •, sympa* 
thetie, 55 ; the wealth of humanity, 94 ', 
its need, 99 ; its reward, 120 j its do* 
minion, 104 ; a setting for the diamond 
of, 278. 

Gentleman, a true not vicious, 42. 

Geology and Christianity, 72, 232. 

Germany, Hartz Mountains, 235. 

Gethsemane and the golden age, 38 ; 
hours, 94 ; Christ in, 122, 269, 303. 

Ghosts versus facts, 356. 

God, his word, 25 ; his reserve, 28 ; the 
charter of freedom from, 34 ; man's 
nature proof of a, 35 5 song to, 38 ; im- 
mensities of, -12 ; similitude to, 46 ; 
glory to, 53 ; in nature, 73 ; of nature, 
of life, 77 j holds the balance of justice, 
85 ; majesty of displayed, 86 ; transla- 
tion of, 89 5 paternity of, 90, 233 5 draws 
us through space — his love efficient, 
91 ; expressed in nature, 92 ; percep- 
tion of, 93 ; sympathy of— what he is, 
100 ; idea of universal, 101 j worship 
due to, 109 5 the Father — infinity, con- 
descension of, 112 j answer to prayer 
from, 114 5 voted out of the universe, 
120 ; infinity of, 121 ; how known, 124, 
134, 136, 172 ; love of, 125 ; holds the 
world, 130 ; plenty shuts in from, 133 ; 
the thought of — cloud, fire, 138 ; spirit- 
ually seen, 139-40 ; sorrow leads to, 
147 ; as a stranger, 151 ; presence of 
unfelt, 152 ; in the soul, 153 5 immortal- 
ity, etc., 156 ; of the living, 159 ; nature 
of unchanging, 163 5 the desire of all 
ages, 165 5 illustrated in creation, 183 ; 
nature generalized in, 190 ; has no 
patience with laziness, 193 5 every man 
a call from, 197 ; unction from, 198 ; 
made the sea, stars, 199 5 goodness of 
seen in nature, 211 ; love of manifest — 
word and works, 212 ; revealed as the 
Father, 214 5 opened a new world, 226 ; 
the image and superscription of, 227 ; 
communion with, 232 5 complimenting, 
233 j and the old sinner, 233 ; Our 
Father, 234-5 ; men project a, 235 ; 



proof of a, 236 ; a symbol of his mercy, 
236 ; glorified in all things, especially 
In man, 243 5 supreme, 246; is love, 
251 ; the campaigu of, 252 ; the privi- 
lege he gives, 256 5 surrender of the 
will to, 256 ; a child of, 257 ; against 
evil, 268 ; in nature and in Christ, 271 J 
seeing with the vision of, 280 ; work of 
— need of faith, 2S1 ; labor the chosen 
sphere of, 286 ; proof of his existence 
and unity, 301 5 life his plan, 302, 304, 
306 j at the helm of the universe — our 
reliance, 307 5 given love — help, 308 ; 
condescension of, 310 ; love, mercy of, 
311 j so loved the world, 314-15 ; power 
of his love, 321 5 careless of offending, 
322 ; his kingdom sure, 326 ; what 
leads to, 327 ; image of desecrated, 
328 ; autumn of year and of life from, 
330 ; seen in nature — near to man, 
334-6 ; has a purpose in creation of 
beauty, 340 ; feeling after, 341 ; two 
gifts of, 342; looking to, 343; the 
Father of all humanity, 346 ; has made 
no mistake, 350 ; the explanation of 
things, 355 5 never alters his methods, 
360. 

God's truth, 35 ; work, 33, 93, 97 ; solici- 
tude, 57 ; care for little things, 58 ; love 
and Providence, 91 ; plan, 95 ; sove- 
reignty—will, praying — doing, 108; 
love, comfort of, 113 ; harmony through 
works, 117 ; attributes our safety, 133 ; 
glory, lamps of, 164 ; throne, all things 
stream from, 71 ; light in Baca, 192 ; 
truth, right, 207 ; sympathy revealed 
in Christ, 248, 315; temple, truly, 
276 ; love for the child, 282 5 mercy 
and gladness, 284 ; processes, 302, 
333 ; love mated with knowledge, 346 , 
eye upon you — law, signal-flag of, 
347. 

Gold, the fine fine forever, 182. 

Good, the shine in trial, 184 ; all things 
prophecy, 188 ; comes out of evil, 358. 

Goodness, what it is, 102 ; the rule in 
nature, 198 5 and knowledge insepara- 
ble, 349. 

Gospel, the, and woman, 33 ; breadth of 
the, 83 ; retirements of, 92 5 the uni- 



INDEX. 



17 



verse and the, 166 ; satisfactory on the 
moral side, 169 ; proof of its authentic- 
ity, 201 ; a peculiarity of, 214 ; a beau- 
tiful truth, 218 j of a new order, 229 j 
the central doctrine of the, 235 : and 
war, 262 5 the essence of the, 264, 270, 
310 ; the power and verification of the, 
324. 

Grave, rest of the, 81 ; the curb-stones of, 
90 5 the secret of, 98. 

Greenness vs. rottenness, 73. 

Grog-shops, how fed, 341. 

Growth, laws of, 70 ; means of, 86. 

Guilt, retributions of, 151 5 degrees of, 
258. 

Gunpowder, Christ's truth is, 290 ; Eu- 
rope sown over with, 87. 

Habit, principle — the difference, 177. 

Habits likened to a go-cart, 254. 

Hancock, 26 ; and the council, 155. 

Harmony in God's works, 117 ; the key- 
note of universal, 234. 

Hartz Mountains, shadow in, 235. 

Harvest blasted reminds of God, 133. 

Head and heart, 150. 

Heart, proof of divine tenderness, 36 j 
and intellect, 48 ; solitary, 100 ; no 
one 'lued to its socket, 134 ; the lever 
of the soul, 140 j and head, 150 j the 
helm, 153 ; the pure reflects God, 172 ; 
and brain, 196 5 disease, nations stricken 
with, 228 ; lives by love, 232 ; like a sea- 
shell, 235 5 Christ claims the, 242 5 a 
new — as a chalice, 245; the world's, 
how moved, 322 j a strong never over- 
come, 323. 

Heathen and Christian art, 174, 176. 

Heathenism, sighs from, 143. 

Heaven, hindrances to, 26 ; who counts 
there, 67 ; grave idea of, 115 j what it 
is, 134 j no night in, 159 j seen through 
tears, 185 ; nearness to, 200 ; cannot 
leap into, 246 ; cannot be where sin is, 
253 ; affections not changed in, 262 ; 
filled with bliss, 267. 

Heroes, the noblest of, 51 ; true, 137 ; our 
Revolutionary, 227. 

Herschell, a Columbus, etc., 87. 

History, the flowering of all, 26 ; Christi- 
2* 



anity and, 141 ; the providential ends 

of, 292 5 English, 296 ; opens the gates 

of the past, 332. 
nomage due to Christ, the, 274. 
Home, pre-vision of the world in, 28 j 

influence of, 29 5 made an inn, 135 j 

consecrated — or desecrated, 341 ; a 

seminary, 343. 
Honor, stars of the legion of, 173 ; the 

post of, 205 3 due to Christ, 275, 318. 
Hope, reason to, 48 j born in sorrow, 52 ; 

its effects, 57 ; nothing to hang on, 

284 3 who has it, 286. 
Hopes, baffled aid the soul, 291. 
Humanity, how known, 54 ; how it grows, 

70 j one, 72, 101 ; not lost, 83 5 moving, 

92 ; something needed by, 143 : not an 

earthly flower, 186 j greater than any 

place, 250 ; or laws or institutions, 262 j 

all in each, 314. 
Human nature, not all odious, 55 ; every 

body full of, 261 j powers, highest, 322. 
Humility, 195 ; what it is, 314. 
Hymn, 118, 215, 305. 
Hypocrite, the fatality in the case of, 83 ; 

who is a, 312. 

Idea, the force of an, 160 : the American, 
227-8 j of typical forms, 301. 

Ideas, the expression of divine, 33 ; wear 
crowns, 91 j worth of, 102 ; events 
shells of, 123 5 potency of, 237 j before 
action — the world and, 244. 

Idealist, the work of — honor to the, 
244. 

Idiot, the voluntary, 37. 

Immortality, proof of, 71, 72, 101, 156, 
238, 240 ; consciousness of, 236 ; evi- 
dence of, 239 5 assurance of, 289, 294, 
327 ; inward blossoming of, 342. 

Incongruity, no hopeless, 188. 

Independence. (See Declaration). 

Indians, treaty with the, 265. 

Individual and the State, 172 ; and the 
race, moving, 190 3 responsibility, 219 5 
influence, 224 ; worth and right, 228 ; 
and social — all are, 229 ; conscience, 
claims of the, 261. 

Individualism and nationality, 228. 

Individuality, not enough of, 130. 






INDEX. 



Induction, the ladder of, 3'2 5 the claim 

of, 190; what it is, - 
Inevital I . 292, 295. 

Infidel, the name, 348. 
Insane, reasoning of the, 260. 

;\ only the path of safe, 355. 

Intemperance, how induced, 1S2 ; effects 
of, 256 ; issues of, 341. 

Intemperate, selling to the, 325. 

Intellect, religion transmutes the, 27 ; 
justifies faith, 39 5 and heart, 43, 19G ; 
and the moral nature, 79 ; the, cavil3, 
169 5 alone, icy, like lofty mountains, 
220 ; lives by truth, 232 j is a light — 
neutral, 238 3 achievements of, 244 ; 
early found proofs of immortality, 258. 

Intellectual ability, admirable, 61 5 cul- 
ture, conditions, use of, 249-50 ; pro- 
gress, 343. 

Interest, twelve per cent, 68 ; obscures 
the sight, 251. 

Irreligion, unnatural, 219. 

Island, stealing an, 217, 260. 

Jacob, the voice of, 312. 

Jerusalem, 150, 166, 247, 274, 275. 

Jesus, the crucified, 51 ; valued the wid- 
ow's mites, 55 ; his words, 89 ; no room 
for, 110 ; the thorn-crowned, 176, 212, 
321 ; contrasted with professors, 218 ; 
the example of, 263 5 transfigured, 
279 3 value of, 294 ; when he weeps, 
297. 

Joy of life, the, not in licence, 41 5 the 
normal state, 42 ; translation of, S9 ; the 
flowering of existence, 96 5 of the blessed 
spirit, 351. 

Judas, Jonathan changed to, 229 ; the 
betrayal, 244, 317. 

Just, never degraded, 184. 

Justice, call of disregarded, 29 ; never 
dies, 35 ; the balance of, 85 3 and mercy 
harmonize, 210 5 nature of true, 262 ; 
balked, 2S0, 336 5 the Bible in courts 
of, 319. 

Kindness, the fruit of, 116, 132. 

Kingdom, of heaven, there is a, 34 •, and 
the mustard-seed, 277 5 of God, the be- 
ginning of, 107 ; sure to come, 326 ; how 



advanced, 356 ; its foundation in the 
soul, 358. 

Kings, continental, 87 ; the Book of, 113 ; 
crowns and Christianity, 290. 

Kingliest Being ever born, the, 44. 

Knave, the and saint, reasoning of, 260. 

Knowing and thinking one knows, 147. 

Knowledge and piety, 45 5 and progress, 
119 j tendency of the highest, 192 
source of the best, 199 ; useless, 230 
defies gravitation, 243 5 use of, 250 
mated with God's love — shine every 
where, 346 ; tends to goodness, 349 
and to life, 356. 

Labor, its conquests and glory, 178-9 3 
developed energy of soul, 191 5 our post 
in the field of, 269 ; the triumphs of, 
2S5 ; God's chosen sphere, 2S6. 

Land, love of native, 31 ; a happy, 69. 

Law, the physical, God's, 59 3 inconsist- 
ency of, 69 ; moral, and twelve per cent, 
68 ; of love, 277 ; beneficent, 292 ; very 
bleak, 306 ; shad-net of, 336. 

Laws, purpose and use of, 262 ; of God 
must be obeyed, 360. 

Laziness, God no patience with, 193. 

Leaf, the, and Sinus, 174, 350 3 the fall 
of — the vanishing of epochs, 292. 

Learning that is not genuine, 230. 

Leaves, none useless, 217. 

Legion of honor, the stars of, 173. 

Lexington, 227 ; the martyrs of, 228. 

Liberty, 35 ; Democratic, 106 ; an old 
fact, 173 5 the charter of, where, 250 3 
its limits, 306. 

Lie, a, but a lie, 31 5 small and large, 32 5 
a spark of fire, 132 ; black, 153. 

Life, a crucible, 26 ; the sum of at- 
tainments, 28 ; a problem, 40 5 enjoy- 
ing, 41 3 computed by the dross, 56 ; 
of pleasure, a, 66 ; economy of, 74 ; 
greatness of, 108 ; spiritual, 116 3 a 
discipline, 121 ; on what its joy de- 
pends, 132, 133 ; meaning of, 147 : who 
fitted for, 147 ; sense of death in, 151 ; 
there is a future, 167 5 Christian view 
of, 168 3 religious view of, 171 3 depends 
upon character, 181 ; conditions of, how 
determined, 187 ; the true end of, 193, 



INDEX. 



19 



222 ; underlying power of, 193 ; the 
deepest, 199 5 and death, conditions of, 
213 5 the inner supreme, 222 ; another, 
239 ; fulness of, 241 ; standards of, 250 ; 
degrees of, 259 ; of heaven, 261 j sug- 
gestive of good, 270 5 no condition of 
satisfactory, 277 ; this not all, 291 5 how 
baptized into, 296 ; God's plan, 302 ; 
the object of, 325 ; an immeasurable, 
328 5 autumn-season of, 330 ; of educa- 
~tion, 332; shadow — evening of — ac- 
count of, 334-5 5 the spiritual, 336 5 be- 
calmed on the sea of, 337 ; what we 
make it, 352 ; the great revealing of, 
353 ; knowledge and, 356. 

Light, infinite, 90 ; for the eye, 159 ; the 
intellect a, 238 ; the inner, 266. 

Locke, the influence of, 71, 332. 

Logic and scolding, 40 ; and faith, 111. 

London, 130 5 journal, a century ago, 
339. 

Louis and Massilon, 283. 

Love burning forever, 30 ; a mother's, 55, 
270 ; the spring of effort, 63 ; life of the 
best things, 67 ; of God, 72 ; creative, 
74 *, secures its ends, 83 ; God's efficient, 
91 ; divine, 94 ; of the Father, 113 ; a 
permanent force, 115 ; the key of knowl- 
edge, 124 ; divine, how shown, 188 ; 
suffering, triumphant, 212 ; the uni- 
verse steeped in, 214 j a test, 217 ; 
thread of quivering down, 231 ; the 
synonyme of righteousness, 251 ; an in- 
stance of brotherly, 256 ; a minister of 
infinite, 272 ; around all forms of evil, 
304 ; God-given, 308 ; exhaustless — 
the essence of, 310, 311 ; in large na- 
tures, 313 ; God is — the primary fact, 
314, 315 ; of God like light of morning, 
316 ; the central truth, 317 ; the essence 
of God, 321 ; how the largest acts, 331 ; 
God's, 346. 

Loyalty to best convictions a duty, 51. 

Luther, 26 ; possible Luthers, 165. 

Maine, breezes of to Carolina, 146. 
Majority, result of going with, 355. 
Man, the true, how shown, 32 ; the divine 

birthright of, 34 ; a proof of a God, 35 ; 

not the head of all things, 42 ; a com- 



plete instrument — no one hopeless, 48 ; 
the best and bravest, 52 5 like a tele- 
scope, 56 ; a solitary, 58 ; the vain, a 
sham, 58 ; to be a true, 61 ; physically 
— spiritually, 63 5 each in an original 
position, 68 ; what made to be, 87 ; of 
the 19th century, 87 •, a true, 116 ; and 
other creatures, 167 ; a seeker, 170 ; of 
principle, 181 ; the glory of, 189 ; tran- 
scends nature, 191 5 needs a Redeemer, 
191 ; diversity of his nature, 193 5 true 
end of, 193; kindred to God, 194; 
every, has a call from God, 197 ; an 
unlimited possibility, 199, 202 ; alone 
guilty, etc., 202 ; afraid of himself, 202 ; 
the most miserable, 205 ; likened to a 
tree in a storm, 207 ; the unmerciful — 
suspicious — mean, 209 ; none super 
fluous, 217 ; the worth of, 227 ; the 
State exists for, 223 ; belongs to God, 
228 ; of two-fold nature, 229 ; who is a 
man, 230 ; concentric, 236 ; God glori- 
fied in, 243 ; a sponge with brains, 
243 ; as an instrument of ambition, 
250 ; likened to an insect, 251 ; a cari- 
cature of a, 256 ; the greatest experi- 
ence of, 257 ; the insane reasons, 260 ; 
like a star, 261 ; of ease not easy, 284 ; 
experience of confirms religion, 309 ; 
the true hopeful, 313 ; the sinful still a, 
313 5 a charge to keep, 318 ; proof of a 
true, 319 ; of ability doing nothing, 
322 ; who does not live, 329 ; from 
youth to age, 331 ; more than a chat- 
tel, 357. 

Manhood, grand feature of, 62 ; the 
strength of, 321. 

Mankind is one, 101. 

Manliness, true, 61, 262. 

Marriage a bond of service, 301 ; the 
true idea of, 337. 

Martyr, the, 201 ; the modern, 209 ; of 
Lexington, 228 ; his persecutors, 241. 

Martyrdom, peace by the shrines of, 53 ; 
made sublime, 192 ; true spirit of, 203. 

Mary, the character of, 34. 

Massilon and Louis, 283. 

Materialism, argument against, 196. 

Mayflower, Christianity in the, 290. 

Macaulay, death of, 296. 



20 



INDEX. 



Meditation, fruits of, COS ; need of, 2S3, 
337 ; lit seasons for, 33S. 

Men. metalic and hollow, 46 •, defects of 
great, 49 ; the best, TO •, constitute eras, 
160 ; moving zones, 1S3 ; the noblest 
the devoutest, 194 ; likened to trees, 
207 ; to pack-horses, 253 5 differences 
of, 259 ; few, 261 ; like a sponge or 
weed, 2S6 ; all in each, 314 ; and the 
Bible, 319. 

Mercy, Christ's spirit of, 171 ; likened to 
the moon, 198 ; and justice harmonize, . 
210; symbol of God's, 236 ; makes 
gladness in heaven, 284 ; the essence 
of the gospel, 310 ; how it regards the 
sinful, 311. 

Methodist, the, 38 ; singing hymns, 51. 

Methuselah, a condensed, 87. 

Milton, 49, 71, 254, 332. 

Mind, decisions of concerning itself, 79 : 
the great, 120 ; is deathless, 158 ; a 
clearer reality than matter, 189 ; po- 
tency of, 237 ; suggests immortality, 
238 ; superior to matter, 233 ; what its 
capacities signify, 296. 

Minister, how he should preach, 66, 165, 
193. 272, 278, 283. 

Miracle, evidence of, 43 ; possible, 155, 
210. 

Miracles, Christ proof of the, 103. 

Mirror, the pure heart a, 172 ; the Bible 
a, 211 ; a breath upon the, 355. 

Mites, the widow's rung in heaven, 55. 

Moon, the, and mercy, 198 5 patience, 
324. 

Morality and religion, 89. 

Moral nature as authentic as intellect, 
107 5 sense and manliness, 262. 

Mother, bereaved, 186 ; old, 204 ; a sym- 
bol, 236 : influence of, 242. 

Mother's love, 55, 270, 311 ; prayer, 199. 

Mount Sinai, of Olives, 259, 274-5 ; Ser- 
mon on, 268, 277 ; of Transfiguration, 
281 5 of communion, 288. 

?>Iourn, blessed they that, 145. 

Music in heaven, 38 ; and the soul, 163 ; 
on violin, 211; God's gift — divine, 
342 ; nature and effects of, 354. 

Mystery and faith, 156 ; we are drifting 
into, 257 ; dark, 349. 



Napoleons, Caesars, fall back, 138. 

Nations, have an orbit, S3 ; for what they 
exist, 125. 

Neture, God working, 73 ; things excel 
in, 77 ; its rebuke and blessing, 92, 93, 
122 ; symbolic, 99 ; parables of, 125 ; 
meaning and uses of, 161 ; its apoca- 
lypse, 169 ; the methods of, 174 ; and 
religion, 189 ; how to study, 190 ; her 
crystal palace, 191 ; fixed capital, 199 ; 
the student of, what like, 200 ; hiding 
human horrors, 264; and the Bible 
alike, 272 ; autumn-phase of, 292 ; what 
the light of shows, 293 ; highest mood 
of, 320-21; suggestions of, 325; and 
Christianity — how interpreted, 359. 

Nebulte, the philosopher's alphabet, 154. 

New Testament, the, free from fanaticism, 
45 ; like the stars, 89 5 the wonder of, 
145 ; the sceptic and, 224 ; how to read 
the, 248 ; what it makes clear, 262 ; its 
own best commentary, 273 ; sense of 
faith, 326 ; on a dime, 329. 

Newton, 49, 87, 232, 259, 299. 

New York, 88, 130. 

Niagara, waters of, 60 ; the falls of, 106 ; 
mists of and of superstition, 308. 

Night in heaven, no, 159 ; purpose and 
blessing of, 223 ; smitten by morning, 
268 ; shadows of and of life, 335. 

Nobility, the true affirmed, 230. 

Ocean, the beautiful, 93. 

October glory, 76 ; like pomp of empires, 

330. 
Office spoils men, 229. 
Old age in sin, 63 ; and autumn, 75 ; and 

death, 293 ; an evening, 338 ; and flow 

ers, 342. 
Oldest time the best, 241. 
Old Nick, 175 ; father, mother, 204. 
Olives, the Mount of, 259, 275. 
Opinion and sin, 175 ; the source of for 

the church, 247. 
Opportunities, present, 64 ; of temptation, 

181. 
Order, the chain of, 80 ; everywhere, 189 j 

is beneficent, 211. 
Ostentation and hypocrisy, 312. 
Over-ruler, the, is merciful, 308. 



INDEX. 



21 



Pain, hope and mercy in, 78. 

Palestine always a Holy Land, 93. 

Palm Sunday, 274, 318. 

Parables of nature and society, 125. 

Passion stains through, 28 ; how over- 
come, 316. 

Past, the, use of its elements, 54. 

Patience, 117 ; born of suffering, 169 ; 
God none with laziness, 193 •, a great 
thing, 333. 

Patriotism, dead, 52 5 indignant, 126. 

Peace and power, 38 5 to men, 53 5 Penn's 
conquest of — the glory of God's nature, 
267. 

Perception and faith, 168. 

Perfect, cannot be, that the glory, 195. 

Perfume, an organized, 57. 

Peter, 244, 279, 282, 317 ; on the wave, 
343. 

Philanthropist, the hope of, 57 ; the life 
of, 241. 

Philosophy and religion, 45, 47 j of 
prayer, 45 ; of utility, 74 5 rebuked, 
340. 

Pic-nic, the best, 175. 

Pillar Saints, the sect of, 246. 

Plan, man caught into God's, 197 ; in na- 
ture and life, 301 ; life not our, but 
God's, 302 ; tribulation a part of, 
304. 

Plants of righteousness, 208. 

Platform, the best, 200 •, Baltimore, not 
Sinai, 259 ; of Christianity, 341. 

Plato and others, 128, 139, 251, 259. 

Pleasure, the end of a life of, 66. 

Pleads, Orion, 57, 259. 

Plenty shuts us in from God, 133. 

Plymouth Rock, 94, 227. 

Poet, the theme3 of ever fresh, 101 ; the 
true — his work, 175, 177, 213 5 his mis- 
sion, 220-21. 

Poetry, what it is, 177, 219, 221. 

Politician, true register of, 84 ; a thimble- 
rigger, 229 j an unprincipled, 248. 

Politicians like owls, 30 ; slimy, 250. 

Politics, cotton-bag, 123 ; separated from 
religion, 229. 

Polycarp, his martyrdom, 289. 

Poverty and riches, 180 ; of soul, 333. 

Power, the highest, 26, 38 } moral, 251 ; 



where i3, 288 ; the ultimate, 319 5 true, 
320. 

Prayer, objections to, 27 ; camp-fires of, 
31 ; philosophy of, 45 ; wilhout love, 
67 ; reason for, 82, 109 ; direct answer 
to, 114 ; natural, 135 j a mother's, 199, 
242 j well-springs of, 2S3 ; the dew of, 
322. 

Prayers, how brought to one's, 172. 

Preaching, 66 ; we need, 165 5 its power 
and effects, 198, 272, 273, 278, 283 j to 
whom, 358. 

Present and future — and past, 170. 

Presbyterian, the, 38, 51, 247, 310, 355. 

Prescott, the history and heart of, 323. 

President's chair and conscience, 122. 

Pride, the sin of the devil, 312. 

Principle, a good never dies, 48 ; rever- 
ence for, 50 ; and habit — the differ- 
ence, 177 ; the man of, 181 ; vs. passion, 
209 ; the worth cf, 355. 

Principles coined by us, 78 $ conquer, 91. 

Printing press, the, 73, 157. 

Profanity, brutal, 105 •, awful, 111. 

Profit, real, 48, 84. 

Progress, the law of, 36 j foot-prints of, 
76, 83 ; of man, 106 ; barriers to, 116 j 
evidence of, 119 ; of the individual and 
the race, 190 ; hieroglyphics of, 191. 

Prophecy of a higher state, 102 ; witness 
to, 130. 

Providence, an omnipotent, 39 ; bow in 
the cloud, 60 ; like a clear night sky, 
80 ; beam of God's, 91 5 works with us, 
not for us, 197 ; tempts Columbus, 226 ; 
order of beneficent, 292. 

Providential, difficult thing3, 189 ; ends 
of history, 292. 

Psalms, the, live forever, 113, 353. 

Pulpit, the, its power, 278 5 place, 287. 

Purpose, a beneficent, 330 ; the Creator's, 
340. 

Railroad company, when to stop, 177. 

Raphael's master-piece, 279. 

Reason, prophetical, 167. 

Reasoning, the fault of, 260. 

Redeemer, man needs a, 191 ; the Trans- 
figuration, 279 ; Raphael's picture, 
279 ; walking by as, 302. 



22 



INDEX. 



Reform legitimate, 39 j and Christianity, 
40, 54 ; and the conservative, 173. 

: of true, 27 ; and all 
good, 37; justified, 39 ; like gravity, 
41 ; and philosophy, 45, 47 ; favors ful- 
ness of nature, 01 j the work of, S3 ; 
not arbitrary, 101 ; the effects of, 103 ; 
the glory of, 133 ; its elements in all, 
135 j not exclusive, 136 } the life of, 
13S •, test of, 149 ; its nature and joy, 
152 j spontaneous, 157 ; the most sub- 
stantial of all things, 102 ; what it is, 
174 ; comes out of nature, 1S9 ; why so 
little with us, 196 ; woman's need of, 
201 ; where it dwells, 216 ; and amuse- 
ment, 216 •, its expression symbolic, 
219 ; a revival of, 222 ; like light wood, 
226 ; and politics, 229 ; a vital interest, 

245 ; and business, 283 ; its work, 283 ; 
and superstition, 30S ; can never be up- 
set, 309 ; a false respect for, 322 ; its 
power and use, 349. 

Religiousness, a crude, 115. 
Resignation, 197 ; not resistance, 206-7. 
Rest, ground of, 7S ; never to, 173. 
Restlessness a prophecy, 39, 234. 
Resurrection, 110, 259. 
Retribution, what it is, 78, 151. 
Revelation and science, 45 ; from God, 

165 5 not to be damaged, 237 ; how au- 
thenticated, 309. 
Revolution, progress, 83 ; fathers of our, 

230. 
Right, absolute, 34; fails not, 82, 247; 

with men and angels, 180 ; holding to 

half way, 216. 
Righteous, the, turn ignominy to glory, 

184 ; life of beautiful, 218. 
Righteousness, plants of, 208 ; for its own 

sake, 221. 

Sabbath, necessity for a, 345. 
Sages, ancient on immortality, 258. 
Saint, creed of true, 85 ; and scholar, 
111 ; a sour old, 240 ; Pillar Saints, 

246 ; and sinner, 254 ; the great, 288 ; 
death of the, 353. 

Salvation, the chariot-wheels of, 356. 
Satan, casting out by, 207. 
Saviour, trial of the, 184. 



Scholar and saint, 111 ; privilege of the, 

231 ; the true, 249. 
Science, the issues of, 117 ; leads up to 

God, 154 ; agrees with religion, 337. 
Scripture, how understood, 32 ; the letter 

of, 113. 
Sea of silence, a, 38 ; the, an organ, 199 ; 

shell, the heart like a, 235. 
Secret of the stars, the grave, 98. 
Self-conceit, danger of, 44, 116. 
Self-esteem, how limited, 303. 
Selfishness, to unlearn, 41 ; man's vs. 

Christ's mercy, 171. 
Self-respect, an honest, 314. 
Sensitiveness, what it indicates, 333. 
Sensualist, the worst, 65 ; an ascetic, 98. 
Shakspeare, 71, 259, 332. 
Sheep, the, how led, 304. 
Silence around the throne, 38. 
Silver, thirty pieces of, 29, 244. 
Sin, its effects, 37 ; the gates of, how 

shattered, 43 ; is voluntary, 107 ; evils 

of, 121, 142 ; the retributions of, 151 ; 

a cheat, 151 ; the death, 152 ; a reality, 

153 ; of unused power, 202 ; is hell, 

253. 
Sinai, 30 ; the platform of, 259. 
Sinner, an old, 63 ; old and God, 233 ; 

and saint, 240, 254 ; love for the, 270. 
Sirius and the leaf, 174. 
Sceptic, condition of the, 46 ; would love 

Christ if he knew him, 224. 
Scepticism founds no empires, 30 ; re 

futed, 39 ; rebuked, 139 ; the worst, 

231 ; the tradition of, 296 ; rests on no 

basis at all, 209. 
Slavery and freedom, 131, 253. 
Slaves to fashion, 130 ; to possessions, 

253. 
Sleep, the blessing of, 80 ; the wonder of, 

225 ; death a, 297-8. 
Society, bad, 58 ; safety and happiness of, 

54. 
Socraties and Christ, 122, 128, 139. 
Sorrow, meaning of, 44, 121 ; a veilM 

angel, 143 ; its uses, 148-9 ; illustratpd, 

150; the majesty of, 176; relief for, 

214, 302 ; suggestions of, 327. 
Soul, destiny of the, 39 ; and the world, 

42 ; a great deep, 54 ; when strongest, 



INDEX. 



61 ; the preacher's all, 66 ; troubled, 
100 ; most precious of all, 104 ; fulness 
of, 116 5 Christmas morning to the, 
117 •, and stars, 122 ; like an im- 
prisoned bird — deathless, 152 ; proof 
of a, 158 ; quenchless, 163 } cannot 
perish, 167 ; how it shows its grandeur, 
185 ; apprehends spiritual realities, 
187 ; the mysery of the, 194 *, down the 
mystic river, 202 ; how invigorated, 
208 ; the brave, 209 ; dwarfed by 
bigotry, 231 5 a reality, 232 ; rever- 
ences only goodness, 233 ; this its in- 
troductory state, 238 ; the charter of 
liberty in the, 250 ; a, to let, 250 5 wings 
growing in the, 258 ; sure of spiritual 
things, 299 } mists of prove religion 
real, 308 5 privilege of — sadness of the 
sinful, 316 5 like the moon, 324 ; per- 
petual youth of — as a winged seed, 
342 5 kingdom of God in, 358. 

Souls here as much as hereafter, 50 5 how 
strengthened, 185 5 lofty, 200} soaked 
into the flesh, 252. 

Spiritual existence, 121, 123 ; discipline a 
solemn duty, 155 ; attainment, 200 5 

« standards of life, 328 5 life, 336 ; the, 
and material, 350. 

Sponge with brains, 243 ; existing like a, 
286. 

Standing fast, too fast, 44. 

Star, a true man like a, 261. 

Stars, sentinels of heaven, 98 ; and the 
soul, 122 ; chime of the morning, 158 ; 
beautiful, 163 •, of the legion of honor, 
173 ; golden ladders, 199. 

State, purpose of the, 172 •, exists for 
man, 228 5 necessity for, 229 5 claims of 
— grounds of stability, 261 ; the future, 
291. 

Steamship, 157 ; once an idea, 244. 

Strength, how gained, 52 ; born of suffer- 
ing, 185 ; condition of, 196. 

Success, conditions of, 195 ; grows out of 
failure, 303. 

Sun, a chronometer, 158 ; uses its power, 
202 5 and the weed, 174. 

Superstition a witness to religion, 308. 

Suspicion fruitful of misery, 209, 313. 



Sympathy of God for man, 100, 248 •, the 
flowering of life, 132 ; for sinners, 270, 
315. 

Tabernacles, perishing, 277 5 abiding, 
282. 

Te Deums of peace, 85. 

Telescope, man, 56 5 the Bible a, 211. 

Telegraph of faith, the, 50. 

Temper, blessings of a patient, 117. 

Temptation, where it is, 27 *, exposure to, 
31 ; conditions of, 181. 

Test of character, 115 5 of position, 217. 

Theory vs. practice, 60. 

Thought, the worth of, 102 ; underrated, 
196 ; the fruit of 208 ; and feeling in re- 
ligion, 222 5 like the germ, 243. 

Throne, silence around the, 38. 

Thrones against a powder-mill, 87. 

Time, the utmost promontory of, 25 j the 
snow of, 26 ; the oldest best, 241. 

To-day all the time we have, 25. 

Toil, the blessings of, 179. 

To-morrow not ours, 81 ; the dreaded 
changed, 82 ; the everlasting, 339. 

Tract societies and pine stumps, 130. 

Transfiguration, the Mount of, 281. 

Trial, the meaning of, 147. 

Tribulation, the furnace of, 180 ; when it 
hurts a man, 187 5 a part of God's plan, 
304. 

Truth fails not, 35, 82 ; should be bold, 
40 j progress of, 64 ; eternal, 65, 247 5 
new and old, 88 5 the glory of spiritual, 
90 •, immutable, 91 5 the organ-music of, 
94 } the pursuit of, 95 5 like light, 119 j 
the root of practical life, 132 5 poetry is, 
177 j primal, where found, 188 ; ever- 
lasting, 203 ; where most beautiful, 
218 5 is poetry, 219 ; its enduring na- 
ture, 231 ; lyrical, 234 ; its dark hemis- 
phere, 347 5 and life, 356 j the king of, 
357 ; its own authority, 358. 

Truthfulness a rare virtue, 51. 

Trust, the power of, 26 •* in two things, 
119 ; changes the darkness, 183. 

Turks, Douglass and the, 99. 

Unbelief, the mockery of, 84. 



INDEX. 



Union, Christian, 50 ; national, 126. 

Unitarian freedom, 247 ; sling a diction- 
ary at every, 311. 

Unity of the Christian world, 146 ; a bond 
of, 234 j how created, 247 ; of the hu- 
man race, 344. 

Universal, primal truth in the, 188. 

Universalist, 247, 310 ; sling a Bible at 
every, 311. 

Universe, reform a law of the, 39 ; a sys- 
tem of exchange, 70 ; the only perma- 
nent dominion iu, 115 ; what enriches 
the, 116 j God voted out of the, 120 ; 
a temple, 136 ; the harmonies of the, 
164 ; and the gospel, 166 ; and a future 
life, 107 5 the highest power in the, 251 ; 
God at the helm of the, 307. 

University, a walking, 85. 

Unmerciful, the unblessed, 209. 

Utility, the of philosophy, 74. 

Tain man, the, suspects himself, 58. 

Valley Forge, soldiers of, 228. 

Vatican, Raphael's picture in the, 279. 

Vellum, white or black, 34. 

Versailles, Franklin at, 230. 

Vesuvius, quenching, 88. 

Vice exhales its poison, 28 ; the evil of, 
62 j the worst characteristics of, 69 j 
questions of, 88. 

Violin, a one-stringed, 211. 

Virtue, all conditions favor, 28 j testimo- 
nies to, 36 *, inducements to, 59 ', what 
it is, 174 •, illustrated, 184 ; a one- 
stringed, 211 ; and the State, 224. 

Visions vain without work, 279 ; needed, 
280. 

Voice, the still, small, 216 $ of the inner 
life, 222 ; of a departed child, 300 ; 
Jacob's, 312. 

War and the gospel, 262 •, the horrors of, 
263-4. 

Washington, 160, 228 j portrait of dese- 
crated, 328. 



William the Conqueror, 230. 

Wisdom begets humility, 195 ; the no- 
blest, 199 ; a nobler, 200 ; weaves the 
cycle of destiny, 304. 

Witches of old, men like, 218. 

Woman and the gospel, 33 j elevated by 
adversity, 148 5 and Christ — needs re- 
ligion, 201 j influence of, 242 ; dis- 
crowned, 313 ; the courage and con- 
stancy of, 317, 336. 

Wooing the material world, 31. 

Word of God, the, 25 j and works war not, 
212. 

Work, how crowned, 30 ; the spirit of, 49, 
126; God's, 79, 97 j God's without, 
Christ's within, 166 ; the world a place 
for, 179 ; secondary to the spirit and 
results, 182 5 only the selfish irreligious, 
205 j the fruit of thought, 208 j man 
without like a sponge, 286 j of modern 
chivalry, 276. 

Working and waiting, 43 ; God's, 121. 

World, the, astonished, 41 ; a golden drop, 
42 ; who overcomes, 52 ; an artificial, 
57 ; how moved, 91 ; carried onward, 
95 •, a reflex of ourselves, 116 ; the liga- 
tures of, 126 ; the master-speech of, 
129 ; in eclipse, 143 5 the aspect of on 
Christmas, 146 j a place for work, 179 ; 
not as the sceptic thinks — a race- 
course, 192 ; the autumn-seasons of this, 
330 j not dreary, 340 5 the whole kin, 344. 

Wrong, warfare against the, 317. 

Years, three-score and ten, 63, 239. 

Yellow-fever, negotiating with, 246. 

Young man enjoying life, 41 j in danger, 
44 ; the journal of, 84 j an ill-natured, 
359. 

Young men and progress, 62 ; their posi- 
tion and work, 249 *, of America, 352. 

Youth, the Christ of, still with us, 275 ; 
the friends of the old man's, 339. 

Zones, men are moving, 183. 






LIVING WOKDS. 



A day ! It has risen upon us from the great deep of 
eternity, girt round with wonder; emerging from the 
womb of darkness ; a new creation of life and light spoken 
into being by the word of God. In itself one entire and 
perfect sphere of space and time, filled and emptied of 
the sun. Every past generation is represented in it ; — 
it is the flowering of all history. And in so much it is 
richer and better than all other days which have preceded 
it. And we have been re-created to new opportunities, 
with new powers ; — called to this utmost promontory of 
actual time, — this centre of all converging life. And it 
is for to-day's work we have been endowed ; — it is for 
this that we are pressed and surrounded with these facil- 
ities. The sum of our entire being is concentrated here ; 
and to-day is all the time we absolutely have. 
3 



LIVING WORDS. 

Life is a crucible. We are thrown into it, and tried. 
The actual weight and value of a man are expressed in 
the spiritual substance of the man. All else is dross. 



Many a man who might walk over burning plough- 
shares into heaven stumbles from the path because there 
is gravel in his shoes. 



An aged Christian, with the snow of time on his head, 
may remind us that those points of earth are whitest 
which are nearest heaven. 



The spring of all great endeavor is a great trust, push- 
ing men forward to unseen ends, away from the fasten- 
ings of custom, out into struggle, and hazard, and mystery. 
So Luther tosses the Pope's bull on the burning pile, and 
sets Christendom on fire. So Columbus goes in his little 
vessel far away from known land, and finds a fresh, green 
world behind the veil. So Hancock and Carroll, trusting 
in the everlasting right of freedom, and risking life, for- 
tune, and sacred honor, strike the drum-beat that echoes 
round the globe. And, still rising in my statement, I say 
that the highest power i3 the highest trust, — is " Trust 
in the Lord with all thine heart." 



LIVING WORDS. 27 

The best answer to all objections urged against prayer 
is the fact, that man cannot help praying ; for we may be 
sure that that which is so spontaneous and ineradicable in 
human nature has its fitting objects and methods in the 
arrangements of a boundless Providence. 



In the spirit of the Christian there is a perpetual 
spring-tide, and in the wintry valleys he hears the rip- 
ple of ever-flowing streams. 



What is most characteristic in true religion — what 
is most wonderful — is the fact that it wells up right 
against a man's desires, his inclinations, his preconcep- 
tions. It shatters his old mouldy crust of habits; it 
changes the currents of his thought ; it makes his dumb, 
stupefied conscience speak right out, and speak to the pur- 
pose; it transfigures, it regenerates him. If it cannot 
make a small power large, it makes it good. If it can- 
not give a big brain in the place of a contracted one, it 
transmutes a man's intellect all into a divine essence of 
purity and love, or freights it with the thunder and 
lightning of dauntless and effective energy. 



The temptation is not here, where you are reading about 
it, or praying about it. It is down in your shop, among 
bales and boxes, ten-penny nails, and sand-paper. 



2S LIVING WORDS. 

Stand at your post in the army, and obey your orders. 
You do not control the great movement of the battle. 
You cannot tell how God will rally the scattered wings, 
or call up his reserve. 



No condition is unfavorable to virtue, where virtue is. 



Striking for the occasion, for the immediate truth or 
duty of the hour, men have struck for all ages. 



"With a vision sufficiently clear we might see in the 
germ the full circle of the flower ; in the acorn the branch- 
ing oak, with five hundred summers murmuring in its 
leaves. So in the ground and seed-plot of home we may 
have pre- vision of the best conditions of this world or the 
other. 



Life, whether in this world or any other, is the sum 
of our attainment, our experience, our character. The 
conditions are secondary. In what other world shall we 
be more surely than we are here ? 



In some way the secret vice exhales its poison; and 
the evil passion, however cunningly masked, stains through 
to the surface. 



LIVING WORDS. 29 

Is not this a very melancholy spectacle ? A man stand- 
ing in some high place of intellect and honor, splendid as 
ever in the brain, but on one side of him — the moral side 
— stricken clear down with paralysis ! A man saturated 
with the finest culture, with the most delicate sensibilities 
playing in his nature, with the escutcheon of pride in eye 
and forehead, flushed with the heraldry of genius, scorning 
the temptations of the flesh, beating upward like an eagle 
towards some lofty point ; yet carrying a hard, cold, selfish 
heart, and marked as a deserter from the right. When 
some great occasion breaks, and imperilled justice calls 
to him from the ground, and far above all mean inter- 
ests and clanging factions the voice of duty summons 
him like the very trump of God, he vacillates, he takes 
up the lance droopingly, he lets the ark of the righteous 
cause totter, he cowers before the dagon of the hour, he 
falls away from the good cause, he betrays it, nay, he 
becomes hot against it ; and the words of the man, that 
might have been tones of regeneration and of victory, clat- 
ter upon our ears like " thirty pieces of silver." 



We send out from the home incalculable influences for 
good or evil, into the world and into the future. At the 
altar and the hearth-stone we grasp the round earth, — 
we touch all ages. 

3* 



30 LIVING WORDS. 

How many men in business are there who steer by 
their ledgers, and who virtually act upon the principle of 
making money in any way that they can ! How many 
politicians, eloquent in the cause of liberty, whose regard 
for freedom is the regard of an owl for the daylight ! 
How many like these are there who really have any Sinai 
or any decalogue higher than some official chair, or more 
vivid than the stamp on a gold eagle ? 



The world is bad enough, but we see the depravity 
by light which streams from veins of goodness running 
through it ; and around its lazar-houses and shambles, its 
giant selfishness and pointed deceits, there are martyr- 
graves and patriot battle-fields, — Love burning forever 
like a vestal fire, and Faith looking calmly upward. 



It is not the great occasion, but the great spirit, that 
crowns and glorifies our work. 



Scepticism has never founded empires, established 
principles, or changed the world's heart. The great 
doers in history have always been men of faith. 



LIVING WORDS. 31 

Glorify a lie, legalize a lie, arm and equip a lie, con- 
secrate a lie with solemn forms and awful penalties, and 
after all it is nothing but a lie. It rots a land and cor- 
rupts a people like any other lie, and by and by the white 
light of God's truth shines clear through it, and shows it 
to be a lie. 



Man has wooed the material world as a lover woes his 
mate, detecting in every "no" a hesitating "yes." 



It is a most fearful fact to think of, that in every heart 
there is some secret spring that would be weak at the 
touch of temptation, and that is liable to be assailed. 
Fearful, and yet salutary to think of; for the thought 
may serve to keep our moral nature braced. It warns us 
that we can never stand at ease, or lie down in this field 
of life, without sentinels of watchfulness and camp-fires of 
prayer. 



A man's love for his native land lies deeper than any 
logical expression, among those pulses of the heart which 
vibrate to the sanctities of home, and to the thoughts 
which leap up from his fathers' graves. 



32 LIVING WORDS. 

The downright fanatic is nearer to the heart of things 
than the cool and slippery disputant. 



We read and hear many scriptural passages with indif- 
ference, until some personal experience elicits their mean- 
ing. A wave of the heart washes over them, and then 
we see all their depth and beauty. 



Let Newton ponder the fall of an apple, and he dis- 
cerns the law by which a rain-drop descends to the ocean, 
and a planet swims round the sun. Thus rises the ladder 
of induction from the earth to the skies ; and with one 
true principle the philosopher unlocks the wards of the 
universe. 



A small lie, if it actually is a lie, condemns a man as 
much as a big and black falsehood. If a man will de- 
liberately cheat to the amount of a single cent, give him 
opportunity and he would cheat to any amount. 



We do not need martyr-stakes, nor battle-fields, nor 
any public scenery, to show us the good and true man. 
His little acts, his daily conduct, will furnish tests. One 
flash reveals the diamond. 



LIVING WORDS. 33 

That sex which almost alone was friendly to the Sav- 
iour, — which anointed his feet with ointment, and fol- 
lowed him with tears to his cross, — which prepared 
sweet spices for his burial, and was the first to hail hi3 
resurrection, has, in turn, been especially befriended by 
his Gospel. It has raised her from the degrading con- 
dition of a slave, or her still more degrading condition as 
a mere instrument of passion, to be a refined and purify- 
ing influence in society, and to lend to home the dignity 
and the grace of the mother, wife, sister, and daughter. 



Hill and valley, seas and constellations, are but stereo- 
types of divine ideas appealing to and answered by the 
living soul of man, 

The Bible is not to be judged in all respects like a 
history composed since history became a science; but 
take that old volume, which has survived the decay of 
ages and the shocks of revolution ; whose every book is 
an epoch, whose every leaf almost turns over a century, 
and whose simple narratives open to us the experience and 
link us to the sympathies of our common nature four 
thousand years ago ; take it, and apply to its records the 
same tests you apply to Polybius or Livy, and the sceptic, 
if his scepticism is honest, will find less room for his cavils 
and his sneer3. 



34 LIVING WORDS. 

Mary was evidently one of those characters who cause 
us to overlook what they do, in the consideration of what 
they are. Her heart was a censer of devout breathings, 
and her whole being vibrated to holy influences like a 
harp. It seems to be the mission of such natures not so 
much to act as to shine in their own calm brightness, like 
planets, reflecting upon us a light which has been poured 
into them from unseen urns. But wherever they move 
their presence is felt ; man's heart grows better for the 
time, and his sins lie still ; while through the rank and 
seething atmosphere of earth they impart glimpses and 
suggestions of heaven. 



There is a higher scale of value in God's universe than 
dollars and cents. There is an absolute Right, and all 
conventional falsehoods must shrivel before it. There is 
a Kingdom of Heaven, and it shall yet come in the 
earth. 



Is it true that we are not looking for the divine birth- 
right of man within, in the moulding of the heart and the 
capacities of the soul, but only hi the color of the face 
and the shape of the skull : and virtually proclaiming that 
God has written the charter of personal freedom on white 
vellum, not on black ? 



LIVING WORDS. 35 

There is a sufficiency in the Bible, — a meaning in its 
simple oracles such as the perplexed mariner finds in the 
compass ; such as the pilgrim knows when amid the un- 
certainties of his journey he discovers a sign of guidance, 
and a spot of repose. 



It is only to our limited and faithless eyesight that any 
righteous cause, falling into the ground, seems to perish. 
Scaffolds, despotisms, ruinous battle-fields ; — these are all 
conditions of the harvest. Truth, or justice, or liberty, — 
swathe it in parchment cerements; dig its grave with 
bayonets; press it down with thrones, bastiles, slave- 
blocks ; sprinkle it all over with the venerable dust of des- 
potism, and in that dust trace the lines of its epitaph. It 
may be buried, but has it really perished ? Can you bury 
the spirit of Christ ? The earth rolls, the sun shines on, 
the spring- winds blow, God's truth flows into the soul of 
man, and not a kernel of the righteous seed will fail to 
ripen at the last. 



Man's own moral nature — his own free will — is evi- 
dence of a moral intelligence and will above and behind 
the material universe ; and his own consciousness of limi- 
tation and defect is an intuitive recognition of that un- 
bounded and perfect One who alone is the Origin, the 
Life, the Controller of all. 



36 LIVING WORDS. 

What a proof of the Divine tenderness is there in the 
human heart itself, which is the organ and receptacle of 
so many sympathies ! When we consider how exquisite 
are those conditions by which it is even made capable of 
so much suffering, — the capabilities of a child's heart, of 
a mother's heart, — what must be the nature of Him who 
fashioned its depths, and strung its chords ? 



This is the main point, — not universal progress, but 
hitman progress ; not progress everywhere, but progress 
somewhere. Grant but that, and all humanity becomes 
hopeful ; — grant but the capacity, and the doctrine is 
practicable • — let the law be in operation only at one 
point, still it is a law, and as such is to be heeded and 
acted upon, 



Every deed of dishonor, every victim of vice, every 
ghastly spectacle of crime, is an eloquent testimony to the 
need and the worth of virtue. 



The drunkard boasts of his freedom with a tongue that 
he cannot control, and with a thirst that drives him to his 

cups But true freedom consists not merely in the 

ability to do, but in the power to refrain from doing ; and 
the latter power the votary of vice does not possess. 



LIVING WORDS. 37 

If through the melancholy sunshine of idiocy there 
should break a gleam of true intelligence, the idiot would 
at least feel no self-rebuke for that simmering brain, — that 
sad, pleased, worthless life. But what shall he say who 
has dissolved the priceless pearl of intellect in the wine- 
cup of debauch? who has sacrificed, yes, deliberately 
murdered every mental gift, and made himself an idiot ? 
The blind man may feel at times that his privation is 
insupportable, and mourn the blank that has come be- 
tween him and the beautiful earth and sky ; yet within 
there maybe "a light which no calamity can darken," 
— the scenery of a happy memory, and the vernal fresh- 
ness of an unviolated conscience. But what shall he say 
who has killed the optic nerve of his own soul, and 
quenched his moral eyesight? We lament the dear friend 
snatched from us by death, yet as we scatter blossoms 
above his grave our thoughts grow fragrant with the 
recollection of his virtues, and amidst the mystery of the 
dispensation religion springs up to strengthen and awe 
us. But what of him, the worn-out libertine, the soul- 
sick epicure? the drunkard, who, while he might have 
acted nobly with the living, folds himself in the cerements* 
of the grave, and walks by choice among the charnels of 
the dead ? 



No good work is foreign to the interests of religion. 
4 



38 LIVING WORDS. 

It will make sweet music enough in heaven — up 
among the harps and the angels — though the tide of song 
to God and the Lamb comes mingling from the lips of 
Presbyterian, and Methodist, and Baptist, and Uni- 
versalist. 



Peace is' an attribute of the highest power. Silence 
reigns throughout those enormous spaces where worlds 
travel on their way. Silence wraps that electric life which 
animates nature, and which is thus more powerful than 
when it is disclosed in thunder. A sea of silence lies 
around the throne of God, and the Almighty speaks not, 
and utters no sound. So in this peace of a religious 
soul, there is evidence of a hidden power that is greater 
than any outward force. 



The golden age is not in the past, but in the future ; 
not in the origin of human experience, but in its consum- 
mate flower ; not opening in Eden, but out from Geth- 
semane. 



God's work is carried on by oscillations : now the truth 
swings to this extreme, now to that; and between he 
weaves his steady and perfect plan. 



LIVING WORDS. 39 

Reform is legitimate. It is so in accordance with 
the general law of improvement, and with the fact that 
there is a tendency in the course of time to corrupt prin- 
ciples and institutions ; so that, previous to the period of 
reformation, their first estate is the best Reforma- 
tion is a law of the universe, operating as irresistibly as 
gravitation or the tides. An Omnipotent Providence is 
implicated with its march ; and so it works on, levelling 
and lifting up, grinding down opposition, changing the 
face of history, and unconsciously shifting the very ground 
beneath our feet. i 



The busy, inventive, achieving intellect, of itself re- 
futes the doubt of the sceptic, and the dogma of the 
materialist ; reveals the sanctions of the highest faith, and 
justifies the interest which religion takes in the soul of 
man. 



There is moral suggestion in this universal restless- 
ness, — this hum, and movement, and ceaseless toil. It 
proclaims a good yet to be attained, or else that the good 
which is attained is unsatisfactory. It is a testimony to 
the incompleteness of the earthly state, and the transcend- 
ent destinies of the soul. 



40 LIVING WORDS. 

Certainly, truth should be strenuous and bold ; but 
the strongest things are not always the noisiest, as any one 
may see who compares scolding with logic. 



We must die alone. To the very verge of the stream 
our friends may accompany us ; they may bend over us, 
they may cling to us there ; but that one long wave from 
the sea of eternity washes up to the lips, sweeps us from 
the shore, and we go forth alone ! In that untried and 
utter solitude, then, what can there be for us but the 
pulsation of that assurance, " I am not alone, because the 
Father is with me ! J3 



Life is a problem. Not merely a premiss from which 
w r e start, but a goal towards which we proceed. It is an 
opportunity for us not merely to get, but to attain ; not 
simply to have, but to be. Its standard of failure or suc- 
cess is not outward fortune, but inward possession. 



If any one maintains reform as a substitute for Chris- 
tianity, he attributes to the stream the virtues of the 
fountain • he ascribes to the arteries the central function 
of the heart. For from Christianity beats the great pulse 
of this world's hope. 



LIVING WORDS. 41 

I MUST pity that young man who, with a little finery 
of dress and recklessness of manner, with his coarse pas- 
sions all daguerreotyped upon his face, goes whooping 
through these streets, driving an animal much nobler in 
its conduct than himself, or swaggers into some haunt of 
shame, and calls it — " Enjoying life ! " He thinks he is 
astonishing the world ! and he is astonishing the thinking 
part of it, who are astonished that he is not astonished at 
himself. For look at that compound of flash and impu- 
dence, an* say if on all this earth there is anything more 
pitiable I He know anything of the true joy of life ? 
As well say that the beauty and immensity of the uni- 
verse were all enclosed in the field where the prodigal lay 
among the husks and the swine ! 



If one wishes to unlearn selfishness let him go apart, 
and stand alone by himself. 



Eeligion, like the law of gravity, binds each element 
of our nature to its own orbit. It gives the peace of a 
harmonious character, where the moral and intellectual 
powers hold their lawful spheres, and the appetites fill 
their restricted place, and the law of purity and holiness 

reigns supreme. 

4* 



42 LIVING WORDS. 

Any scheme which makes man the head and centre of 
all things will fail in its applications. The mariner 
knows but little concerning the vast, unfathomable sea, 
who assumes that it was made and spread out solely for 
the advantage of his little ship. 



It is difficult to believe that a true gentleman will ever 
become a gamester, a libertine, or a sot. 



This world, with all its wealth and splendor, hangs but 
a golden drop in the immensities of God, — in the illimit- 
able immensities that open before the soul. 



In the market a man exposes himself to impositions and 
losses such as cannot be reckoned by dollars and cents. 
He is liable to be deluded into the idea that material good 
is the only good ; .... to make business not only essen- 
tial, as it is, but all-important, as it is not. 



There is joy in every normal state of being : there is 
joy in heaven. Everything that is contrary to this is evi- 
dently abnormal, transitional, or, in the instrumentality of 
discipline, working out to joy. 



LIVING WORDS. 43 

A man's failure to observe the highest standard of 
living is not always the effect of wilful disregard ; but 
depends much upon the moral plane in which he moves. 



However logical our induction, the end of the thread 
is fastened upon the assurance of faith. 



While it is true that a miracle demands greater evi- 
dence than an ordinary occurrence, the united experience 
of the race cannot demonstrate the impossibility of such a 
thing. 

Do you expect with one stroke of the hammer, or with 
all the hammering you may make, to shatter the great 
gates of sin, and let in the millenial daylight at a single 
burst ? It is none of your business whether that victory 
comes now or a hundred years ahead. Work and wait, 

that is your office Do something for truth and 

righteousness. But fret not because all is not done at 
once. Come in when the sun goes down ; come in when 
the arm grows weak ; come in, old, bowed head, whitened 
with still unsuccessful toil, — come in and gird yourself, 
and wait upon Divine Providence, now that you have 
toiled. The process will go on. The harvest is sure. 



44 LIVING WORDS. 

Sorrow does not predicate annihilation, but develop- 
ment. There is compensation in all things around us. 
There must be in this experience. The real counter- 
stroke to the pulse of mortal anguish is not the full stop 

of death, but the vibration of immortality Deep 

human sorrow ; — do you argue annihilation in that ? or is 
there not a prophecy in it that with every beat of the 
heart shatters the theory that a troubled life has a dark 
end? 



Nothing is so odious and so dangerous as the attitude 
of the young man who has grown, or rather lapsed, into 
self-confidence, and drops the curb of restraint while he 
runs away with the reins. 



As to environments; the Kingliest Being ever born in 
the flesh lay in a manger. What a miserable thing to see 
clay in brocade and velvet shrugging its shoulders at clay 
in coarse woollen and with black thumbs ! 



Some men who stand fast in a good cause stand too fast. 
They will not consent to carry out a part of their work 
unless they carry out the whole of it at the same time. 
The right thing must be done all at once, or nothing right 
must be done. 



LIVING WORDS. 45 

Knowledge and piety burn and brighten with an un- 
divided flame. Revelation and science are continually 
interpreting one another, while every day the material 
universe is unfolding a more spiritual significance, and in- 
dicating its subservience to a spiritual end. 



There is a close alliance between true philosophy and 
true religion. That the New Testament is eminently free 
from fanaticism, and makes no appeal to mere credulity, 
any one will see who examines. That it is rational and 
sober constitutes one of its great internal evidences. 



Must a man get a correct philosophy of prayer before 
he prays ? Must the child, ready to run into its father's 
arms, stop and study mental processes before it yields to 
the impulses of its love ? 



Objects close to the eye shut out much larger ob- 
jects on the horizon; and splendors born only of the 
earth eclipse the stars. So a man sometimes covers 
up the entire disc of eternity with a dollar, and 
quenches transcendent glories with a little shining 
dust. 



46 LIVING WORDS. 

THROUGH transient conditions we work for permanent 
ends, and that only is profit which, adding to the sub- 
stance of our immortal nature, becomes in us spiritual 
power and blessedness, and similitude to God. 



There are men so metallic and hollow themselves that 
all they touch rings as if it were metallic and hollow also. 
In passing through their hands it becomes for the time 
being electrotyped with their own baseness. 



In the isolation of his clear, cold intellect, the sceptic 
abides in a glacial and spectral universe. No glow from 
the affections lights up the frost and shadow of the grave. 
He feels no prophecy in the thrill of the human heart, — 
in the incompleteness of nature. He believes merely in 
things tangible, and sees only in the day-time. He will 
not confess the authenticity of that paler light of faith 
which was meant to shine when the sunshine of reason 
falls short, and the firmament of mystery is over our 
heads. 



We believe that though this body shall drop to ashes, 
the soul shall go beaming upward like a star. But of 
what use is this belief without corresponding action ? 



LIVING WORDS. 47 

Christianity furnishes the only foundation of a har- 
monious and rational life. While it pours upon this world 
the light of another, it also burns away those ghastly and 
distorting mists which evolve from the depths of unguided 
speculation, and is as unfavorable to superstition as it is to 
atheism. It urges a code of duty, strict yet simple ; fitted 
to beings of earthly mould yet of immortal destiny. 



The religion of philosophy consists of right views of 
things, and a prudential schooling of the passions. True 
religion consists in a right state of the affections, and a 
renunciation of self. In the one case religion may "play 
round the head, but come not near the heart;" in the 
other it breaks up the great deep of conscience, and pours 
an intense light upon the springs of motive. Philosophy 
contains the idea of intellectual rectitude; religion, of 
moral obedience. Philosophy speaks of virtue ; religion, 
of holiness. Philosophy rests upon development; religion 
requires regeneration. 



The grand current of events runs not downward or 
backward. The spirit within these rapid wheels of time, 
turning them this w r ay and that, still moves them forward 
and to blessed ends. 



48 LIVING WORDS. 

It matters little to what pole of doctrine the intellect 
swings, if the heart hangs impenetrated and untouched. 



Every man in this world, be he boot-black or emperor, 
is a complete instrument. He may be of greater or less 
compass, but he has all the harmonies, — the entire dia- 
tonic scale, — every chord, every octave. In some way 
the eternal grandeurs strike him, sounding the deep tones 
of faith and conscience ; in some way the world touches 
the meaner and flatter keys. The great thing to be con- 
sidered is, w T hat kind of music he habitually makes. 



There is always reason to hope and be strong when a 
good principle once gets a foothold in the world. A true 
principle never dies. A grain of seed, sown in truth and 
holiness, will spring up to fruition ; though it may be long, 
long ere it shall flower in its beauty, or spread its green 
leaves to the sun. 



Who says any man is hopeless, utterly degraded, fit 
only to be destroyed ? He falters from the confidence of 
Christ. His revenge gets the better of his reason. He 
knows not what spirit he is of. 



LIVING WORDS. 49 

Many a stripling considers his excesses as the crackling 
of the ethereal flame, the dross of inspiration, and as es- 
sential to the part which he has assumed as the " eye in 
a fine frenzy rolling." It generally happens, however, 
that his achievements are limited to the darker hemis- 
phere of genius. He exhibits little of Sheridan save his 
recklessness, and nothing of Byron except the gin and 
water. It has been said that "the defects of great men 
are the consolation of the dunces; 77 but they are also the' 
sorrow of the truly wise, who in the very proportions of 
the achievement detect the greatness of the aberration. 
And it is idle to say that there is any necessary connec- 
tion between the achievement and the aberration. While 
Milton sings to us from the gates of Paradise, we know 
that the essential inspiration of genius flows not from tur- 
bid fountains ; and while Newton treads upward among 
the stars, it is evident that might and comprehensiveness 
of mind need not the feculent leaven of passion. 



No one can truly see Christ, and drink in the influence 
of his character, and riot be a Christian at heart. - 



It will depend upon the spirit in which we work 
whether the agencies about us will become agents of good 
or of evil. 

5 



50 LIVING WORDS. 

In every Christian denomination there is enough vital, 
kindling Christianity, to make good hearts. 



This is the union of Christians that I ask for : Not 
an identity of doctrine ; not an indifference to articles of 
belief: not a worshipping in one place or one form; but a 
recognition of the great common humanity, — of the right 
of opinion, — of the oneness of the Christ-like Image seen 
through many human forms. 



He who avoids the battle of life remains weak and un- 
ready ; and only he who contends for the mastery wins 
the crown. 



The radical condition of all business intercourse is rev- 
erence for principle, — confidence in the sanction that 
gives credit to the note of hand, and that imparts potency 
to seal and signature. It is that extends a telegraph of 
mutual faith around the globe, maintains a bond of com- 
munion between men at opposite ends of the earth, and 
whitens the sea with commerce. 



We have souls here as much as we shall have hereafter. 



LIVING WORDS. 51 

No more important duty can be urged upon those who 
are entering the great theatre of life than simple loyalty 
to their best convictions. 



Far through the opening vista of rent devices and 
broken symbols, like the heaving billows of a mighty sea, 
the tide of Christian philanthropy is rolling on. Men of 
all sects are there. The Catholic is there, with his cruci- 
fix pressed to his bosom. The Methodist comes on, sing- 
ing the sweet hymns of Wesley. The Baptist brings his 
robe of immersion. The Presbyterian stands upright, as 
his iron fathers did of old, to pray in simple reverence and 
freedom. The Universalist chants his anthem of restora- 
tion and holiness. But they stand shoulder to shoulder. 
They all point upward, earnestly upward, to that great 
banner which waves over all, whose device is the Crucified 
Jesus, — whose inscription, all over in letters of blessed 
light, is his last command: "Love one another;" — 
is the spirit of his pure and undefiled religion : l ' Visit the 
fatherless and widows, in their affliction ; keep your- 
selves unspotted from the world" 



Thorough truthfulness — truthfulness to others and 
to ourselves — is a rare virtue ; and he who indeed acts 
upon it is the noblest of all heroes. 



$2 LIVING WORDS. 

The weak sinews become strong by their conflict with 
difficulties. Hope is born in the long night of watching 
and tears. Faith visits us in defeat and disappointment, 
amid the consciousness of earthly frailty and the crum- 
bling tombstones of mortality. 



The best and the bravest man is the man who,, amid all 
thronging realities of life, endeavors to conform to an 
ideal rectitude. Those who have accomplished great 
things, who have stood in advance of the age and dared 
to rebuke it, and who have overcome the world, have 
lived from sanctions that are above the world. 



Patriotism ! It is used to define so many diversities, 
to justify so many wrongs, to compass so many ends, that 
its life is killed out ; it becomes a dead word in the vocab- 
ulary, — a blank counter, to be moved to any part of the 
game ; and that flag which, streaming from the mast-head 
of our ship of state, striped with martyr-blood, and glis- 
tening with the stars of lofty promise, should always indi- 
cate our world-wide mission, and the glorious destinies 
that we carry forward, is bandied about in every selfish 
skirmish, and held up as the symbol of every political 
privateer. 



LIVING WORDS. 53 

I ask, if that system which should come into the world, 
having for one of its objects the elevation of the soul to 
such a degree of goodness and moral strength as to de- 
stroy the will and the disposition to sin, — I ask, if that 
system is not worthy of being heralded by angels, — of 
being announced in a chorus of glory to God in the high- 
est — of peace and good- will to men ? Yes, glory to God 
in the highest ! Glory to him in the great design, and 
the triumphant means of accomplishing such a work ! 
Glory to him that must result from the consummation of 
manhood purified from its sins, elevated above its sensual- 
ity, living the true and divine life ! And on earth, peace 
to men ! Peace after the stormy warfare of passion and 
guilt. Peace by the old shrines of martyrdom, and on 
the fields of ancient battle. Peace in the haunts of secret 
crime, and the homes of shameless transgression. Peace 
where clanked the prisoner's chain, and where groaned the 
doomsman's axe. Peace where rose the sobs of injured 
innocence, and the pleadings of trampled, bleeding human- 
ity. Peace in the individual soul, where all is in har- 
mony with God, and where the end of human laws and 
outward institutions is not destroyed, but fulfilled, — ful- 
filled in the highest and the deepest sense. 



Christianity is a Ufa, and every devout and loving 
heart has felt it, no matter what its name or sect. 
5* 



54 LIVING WORDS. 

The plant that shall blossom unto an immortal flower- 
ing must assimilate to itself elements that have been win- 
nowed in the storms and changes of the past. 



It is too late for reformers to sneer at Christianity ; it 
is foolishness for them to reject it. In it are enshrined 
our faith in human progress, — our confidence in reform. 
It is indissolubly connected with all that is hopeful, spirit- 
ual, capable in man. The past bears witness to it, in the 
blood of its martyrs and the ashes of its saints and heroes ; 
the present is hopeful because of it ; the future shall ac- 
knowledge its omnipotence. 



The safety and happiness of society flow out from the 
recesses of private principle. 



It wants not merely microscopic but telescopic power 
to know humanity in its essence ; a power to discern its 
grandeur as well as its littleness, the infinity of its rela- 
tions as well as the meanness of its pursuits. The human 
soul is a great deep. We must take into view the nebu- 
lous possibilities that are brooding and waiting there, and 
notice the buds and films of light that reveal themselves 
even in the darkest spaces. 



LIVING WORDS. 55 

In the most shallow nature there clings some shred of 
dignity which redeems it from utter contempt. And it is 
a mean performance, or else it is purblind sight, that se- 
lects the odious features, and parades them as the sum- 
total of human nature. 



The highest genius never flowers in satire, but culmi- 
nates in sympathy with that which is best in human 
nature, and appeals to it. 



No man knows the genuineness of his convictions until 
he has sacrificed something; for them. 



Those two mites of the poor widow ! They were heavy 
with her labor, and her prayers, and her self-denial ; and 
so, as they fell into the treasury, they rung in the ear of 
Heaven, and Jesus valued them. 



No language can express the power, and beauty, and 

heroism, and majesty of a mother's love It shrinks 

not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man 
faints, and over the wastes of worldly fortune sends the 
radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star in heaven. 



56 LIVING WORDS. 

Every man who regards position more than principle 
— the garment more than the heart — computes life by 
the dross, and rates the substance by the shell. 



The great fact to be considered is not our lot in life, 
but we who are in that lot, and what we make out of it. 



Because of existing evils, to break the strong bands 
of the marriage relation, and set the family group adrift 
in some vague conceit of social freedom, or some nonsense 
of " spiritual affinities," would be like knocking a ship in 
pieces because some of the passengers are sea-sick. This 
organism of the family is a ship that has carried human 
civilization over the waves of ages, — an ark that has pre- 
served the germs of the social state in many a deluge. 
Sunder the ties that hold it together, and who can esti- 
mate the ruin, or from the shattered fragments recon- 
struct society ? 



Man in selfish solitude is like a telescope closed up. 
The qualities of his humanity may exist, but they are 
unknown. 



Death is a great revealer of what is in a man. and in 
its solemn shadow appear the naked lineaments of the soul. 



LIVING WORDS. 57 

Those who draw around them the upholstery of an 
artificial world — a world of frippery and gas-light — 
shut out the true world of thought and life ; — shut out 
the true world of nature, where flowers bloom and sun- 
beams fall, and over which Orion sparkles and the Pleiades 

lead their flashing train The representative of this 

variety in its weaker aspect is a slick and harmless being, 
— a kind of whiskered essence, or organized perfume, — 
level to the minutest propriety of the drawing-room and 
the opera; his thoughts oppressed with ten thousand 
points of ceremony, or pondering grave problems as to the 
color of a glove or the shape of a boot. 



The philanthropist's hope may not appear in the com- 
ing future ; yet the inspiration of that hope may make him 
a hero, and perhaps a martyr. 



God's beneficence streams out from the morning sun, 
and his love looks down upon us from the starry eyes of 
midnight. It is his solicitude that wraps us in the air, 
and the pressure of his hand, so to speak, that keeps our 
pulses beating, ! it is a great thing to realize that the 
Divine Power is always working ; that nature, in every 
valve and every artery, is full of the presence of God. 



58 LIVING WORDS. 

The sublimities of God's glory beam upon us in his 
care for the little, as well as in his adjustments of the 
great : in the comfort which surrounds the little wood- 
bird, and blesses the denizen of a single leaf, as well as in 
the happiness that streams through the hierarchies of being 
that cluster and swarm in yon forests of the firmament ; 
in the skill displayed in the spider's eye, — in the beauty 
that quivers upon the butterfly's W T ing, — as in the splen- 
dors that emboss the chariot-wheels of night, or glitter in 
the sandals of the morning. 



The wild bird that flies so lone and far has somewhere 
its nest and brood : A little fluttering heart of love im- 
pels its wings, and points its course. There is nothing so 
solitary as a solitary man. 



A vain man is not one with a dignified consciousness of 
his own personality, but rather one with a nervous solici- 
tude about himself, — a fear that he shall not be noticed 
enough ; with a half-suspicion that he may be a sham, a 
counterfeit, and, therefore, an extra endeavor that his 
chink and jingle shall be heard in the world. 



But little good is derived from the company of a highly 
intellectual wolf or a moral bear. 



LIVING WORDS. 59 

Break up the institution of the family, deny the in- 
violability of its relations, and in a little while there would 
not be any humanity. 



The physical law is also God's law, — the expression of 
his intention, the enactment of his will. It has had no set 
place of proclamation, no vocal utterance. But its ad- 
ministration is abroad on the pure air of heaven, and its 
decrees are in the light. It is not engraved on tables of 
stone, but its sanctions are in every part of your wonder- 
ful, throbbing organism : in the currents of the blood, the 
hand- writing of the nerves, and the tablets of the lungk. 
While you obey it its mystery works on, with serene un- 
consciousness, affording that pleasure which there is in 
bare existence itself; in the play of muscle and the equal 
pulse of health ; in full, deep breathing, and sweet sleep, 
and the exhilaration of the sunshine and the air. But 
violate it, and the relentless consequences will tell you 
how sacred and how divine it is. 



If we would induce others to act virtuously, it will 
prove more effectual to show them their capacities than 
to expose their weakness ; — to attract them by a fairer 
ideal than to terrify them by pictures of misery and 
shame. 



60 LIVING WORDS. 

EVENTS, things, world-mo vements, individual experi- 
ences, contemplated from a partial point of view, may 
seem chaotic, purposeless, disconnected, — like the foam- 
flakes, pitching, whirling, turned into mist, bounding into 
white annihilation, at Niagara. But every atom of that 
dishevelled water is held in the curve of nature, and de- 
scends by law, and combines and sweeps onward to the 
broad lake. So with human events. They are governed ; 
they accomplish a majestic course ; and over their maddest 
plunging, their most terrible anarchy, there arches the 
superintending Providence — a bow in the cloud. 



Death makes a beautiful appeal to charity. When we 
look upon the dead form so composed and still, the kind- 
ness and the love that are in us all come forth. 



Whatever may be our condition in life, it ; .s better to 
lay hold of its advantages than to count its evils. 



Although the notions of many are so contrary to ours, 
we discover that in common life they are worthy people, 
and that their theories do not make such shocking havoc 
as we had inferred. 



LIVING WORDS. 61 

He is a true man who realizes the dignity of his na- 
ture ; who is loyal to his best convictions ; who controls 
his passions and appetites ; who is guided by his reason ; 
and who blends a noble mastery of himself with a filial 
dependence upon God, and who is greater than anything 
that he has or does. 



To be a man in the best sense of the term is a loftier 
object of ambition than anything that he may acquire as 



a man. 



It is an error to suppose that religion is unfavorable to 
vigor and fulness of nature. 



Courage is always greatest when blended with meek- 
ness ; intellectual ability is most admirable when it 
sparkles in the setting of a modest self-distrust; and 
never does the human soul appear so strong as when it 
foregoes revenge and- dares to forgive an injury. 



There can be no true manliness without gentleness, 
mercy, love. There is only superficial strength in him 
who can do but not endure. 

6 



62 LIVING AV011DS. 

Or all strength of character, of all spiritual force, 
Christianity is the main spring. A glance at facts is 
enough to show this. For where are human energies the 
most active and the best developed ? Where has science 
achieved its grandest victories ? Where have invention, 
art. and civilization unfolded their richest results? In 
Christian lands, and under Christian influences. 



A genuine loyalty to truth, that dares to speak it and 
to live it, is one of the grandest features of manhood. 



In the history of man it has been very generally the 
case that when evils have grown insufferable they have 
touched the point of cure. 



This is the essential evil of vice : it debases a man. 



The seeds of good resolve, progress, virtue, fly to 
young men winged with fresh hopes. Often the only 
remedy that we can descry for present evils is' the substi- 
tution of another stock of men. In the coming of a new 
generation there always opens a better prospect for the 
world. 



LIVING WORDS, 63 

We are astonished at the sight of nerveless infamy and 
decrepit lust. It'makes us sick at heart to see the limbs 
that stoop so near the earth shaking with the tremor of in- 
dulgence, and the eyes "whose feeble vision should be lifted 
heavenward blinded with the filthy rheum of debauch. 
It appals us that one who for threescore years and ten has 
experienced the goodness of his Maker should use the ac- 
cents of his faltering voice to defile that name with blas- 
phemy ; that he who knows how much purity there is, 
even yet, in life, should to the very last maintain such an 
example to infect its sanctities ; and that, while it should 
seem most men would grow solemn at least when those 
great shadows are thickening upon their heads, he should 
mock them with his toothless laughter, and, gathering 
curses about him like a garment, stagger headlong into the 
gates of death. 

Physically, man is but an atom in space, and a puls- 
ation in time. Spiritually, the entire outward universe 
receives significance from him, and the scope of his exist- 
ence stretches beyond the stars. 



A thousand wheels of labor are turned by dear affec- 
tions, and kept in motion by self-sacrificing endurance; 
and the crowds that pour forth in the morning and return 
at night are daily processions of love and duty. 



64 LIVING WORDS. 

The truly beautiful is useful. And no man needs 
this kind of help so much as he who ignores it; whose con- 
ception of utility is limited to the bounds of a coarse, ma- 
terial interest, and the service of the senses. Why, what 
does he think of this vast palace of industry all around 
him, with enamelled floor and its star-sprinkled dome, 
where the Divine Intelligence, working for illimitable 
ages, has mingled the materials of use with the expression 
of beauty ? What does he make of the contributions which 
summer brings to this great exhibition,— of the upholstery 
of the sunset and the tent of midnight ? Does he not won- 
der that the leaves" should put on such pomp for the dying 
year, and that such useless things as flowers should line 
the traveller's dusty way? 



You have opportunities for serving God that all the 

past had not. 

• 

Truth and righteousness do not break forth in sharp 
and sudden shocks. Secretly they work down in the 
deep heart of things, leavening the lump. Gradually they 
proceed, like the issues of the morning, in which we de- 
tect no sudden crisis, — in which we hardly observe the 
transition, — until, bye-and-bye, in place of the shadows 
and the cold, gray mist, lo ! a clear, transfiguring splendor 
rests on the mountains and the sea. 



LIVING WORDS. 65 

The strict conservative says that truth is in danger. 
It is the idlest fear in the world. It plainly indicates no 
intimacy with the truth. He who has communed with 
great principles knows that they are everlasting, and that 
nothing can shake them from their orbits. He is willing 
to trust truth in every encounter, knowing it to be eter- 
nal and omnipotent. 



The man who strives to reach the core of things, who 
anxiously wrestles with doubt, and clasps his temporary 
conviction though it makes his very heart bleed, and yet 
who beats about in blinding mist, and cannot see, may be 
nearer the kingdom of heaven than he who mechanically 
wears the yoke of tradition, who worships in listless con- 
formity, but who cares nothing for the truth in itself, and 
in whose soul that truth lies dead. 



Of all sensualists the worst is that moral sepulchre 
within whose gilded exterior the life of principle has crum- 
bled darkly away, — the man whose tiger propensities are 
disguised with a velvet tread and a silver tongue,^ — 
whose real nature, into which has entered the curse of 
withered innocence and broken hearts, is hidden by the 
glitter of accomplishments, and each accomplishment a 
treacherous lie. 
6* 



G6 LIVING WORDS. 

If angels stoop from visions of more than earthly beauty 
to spells of less than earthly worth, they are but fallen 
angels, mingling divine utterances with the babblings of 
madness, and the madness is not the divineness. 



A life of mere pleasure ! A little while, in the 
spring-time of the senses, in the sunshine of prosperity, 
in the jubilee of health, it may seem well enough. But 
how insufficient, how mean, how terrible w T hen age comes, 
and sorrow, and death ! A life of pleasure ! What does 
it look like when these great changes beat against it, — 
when the realities of eternity stream in ? It looks like 
the fragments of a feast, when the sun shines upon the 
withered garlands, and the tinsel, and the overturned 
tables, and the dead lees of wine. 



The minister should preach as if he felt that although 
the congregation own the church, and have bought the 
pews, they have not bought him. His soul is worth no 
more than any other man's, but it is all he has, and he 
cannot be expected to sell it for a salary. The terms are 
by no means equal. If a parishioner does not like the 
preaching he can go elsewhere and get another pew, but 
the preacher cannot get another soul. 



LIVING WORDS. 67 

Earth has scarcely an acre that does not remind us of 
actions that have long preceded our own, and its cluster- 
ing tomb-stones loom up like reefs of the eternal shore, to 
show us where so many human barks have struck and 
gone down. 

What is prayer without love but the mockery of lofty 
compliment, or the awe and agony of servile fear ? Love 
is the very life of the best things, and without it they are 
mere bodies, dead and empty. 



The city reveals the moral ends of being, and sets the 
awful problem of life. The country soothes us, refreshes 
us, lifts us up with religious suggestion. 



An ague-fit in the Bank of England or in Wall-street 
sets the whole w T orld a shaking ; and if you would discover 
the most sensitive and powerful interest of the day con- 
sult the barometer of the stocks. 



0, how those men are to be valued who, in the spirit 
with which the widow gave up her two mites, have given 
up themselves ! How their names sparkle ! How rich 
their very ashes are ! How they will count up in heaven ! 



68 LIVING WORDS. 

It is hard work to rend the moral law straight through 
the double lens of twelve per cent interest ; and a man 
will find some way to hitch his conscience to the train of 
a profitable transaction, and keep it running in the grooves 
of a thriving business. 



There are many men, I fear, who make Sunday 
answer the purpose of a dull business spell or a rainy 
day. They turn over the leaves of the ledger instead of 
the Bible ; mourn not their sins, but their bad debts ; 
and are so busy writing their own letters that they have 
no time to read the epistles of Paul. 



Each man occupies an original position. Every great 
fact comes straight to him. Every appeal of duty must 
run through the alembic of his reason, his conscience, and 
his will. The cope of heaven bursts above him ; the un- 
fathomed depths open beneath him ; the mysteries of God 
and immortality come streaming in, with their awful 
splendors ; and truths that have confounded the loftiest 
intellects — truths that in all ages have roused up the 
soul from its foundations, and baptized it with reverence, 
and kindled it with love — environ him as intensely as if 
he were the first-born of men set face to face with fresh 
and unresolved problems. 



LIVING WORDS. 69 

It is a shameful inconsistency that the law should busy 
itself only with consequences, and neglect and even foster 
causes. It leaves uncared for the hot-beds of iniquity, 
and shuts up the vagrant and the thief. With one hand 
it licenses a dram-shop, and with the other builds a 
gallows. 



This is the most fearful characteristic of vice : its irre- 
sistible fascination ; — the ease with which it sweeps away 
resolution, and wins a man to forget his momentary out- 
look, his throb of penitence, in the embrace of indulgence. 



Happy is the land whose granite heart is warmed by 
sacred hearth-fires, and in whose homes are nourished 
venerable associations and local attachments. These in- 
tense sympathies are not less but more favorable to 
broader claims. These enrich the blood, and toughen 
the fibres of a noble patriotism. These impart that vital- 
ity which withstands oppression and clings to the right. 
These send some element of purity and honor into a na- 
tion's life, lend it that identity of soul which stirs to this 
common suggestion of the altar and the home, and, hem- 
ming it around with the father's ashes and the children's 
hopes, make it a land worth living and worth dying 
for. 



70 LIVING WORDS. 

He is a miserable being who has no resources of enjoy- 
ment within himself, but depends entirely upon foreign 
suggestion; who, in fact, must run away from himself, 
and pitch into the waves of superficial excitement, a per- 
petual whirl and glitter that drowns all personality, and 
sweeps away soul and sense. 



I doubt the validity of any amusement that is thought 
proper for the people but improper for the minister. 



The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every ar- 
tery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from 
the planet to the rotting leaf. The vapor climbs the sun- 
beam, and comes back in blessings upon the exhausted 
herb. The exhalation of the plant is wafted to the ocean. 
And so goes on the beautiful commerce of nature. And 
all because of dissimilarity, — because no one thing is 
sufficient in itself, but calls for the assistance of something 
else, and repays by a contribution in turn. 



Everything grows from the centre outward ; and so 
humanity grows from moral and intellectual inspira- 
tions. 



LIVING WORDS. 71 

A martyr's blood may become not only "the seed of 
the Church," but of far-reaching revolutions; and the 
philosopher's abstraction beats down feudal castles, and 
melts barriers of steel. One great principle will tell 
more upon the life of a people than all its discoveries and 
conquests. 



Whatever touches the nerves of motive — whatever 
shifts man's moral position — is mightier than steam, or 
caloric, or lightning. 



In the great sum of social destiny, England is not that 
empire whose right arm encircles the northern lakes, and 
whose left stretches far down into the Indian Sea ; but an 
influence which is vascular with the genius of Bacon, and 
Locke, and Shakspeare, and Milton. 



It is a proof of his immortality that while these ma- 
terial elements are united with his body, and hold the mort- 
gage of his dust, they are obsequious to his purposes, and 
before the moral and intellectual man assume an attitude 
of inferiority. This is a new proof of his immortality, 
that flashes out in the wide diffusion of science at the 
present day, that man appears as a workman, nature but 
as an implement. 



72 LIVING WORDS. 

Ethnology may break the concrete surface of human- 
ity into the mosaic of a thousand races ; — it cannot turn 
into diverse channels that common under-current, that 
deep gulf-stream, which heaves with the impulses and the 
yearnings of one nature and one blood. Geology may 
throw open its rocky catacombs, stamped with the hiero- 
glyphics of incalculable time; — it cannot divorce the con- 
scious soul from that eternal Love which is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. Astronomy may appal our 
fleshly eyesight with its sweep of boundless space. But 
only more impressive, more needed, more real seems that 
Bible truth uttered long ago : " Thou hast beset me be- 
hind and before, and laid thine hand upon me." As we 
see what the natural world is, we only feel more vividly 
what the spiritual truth of Jesus means : and the clouds 
of sense that to some may have seemed for the time to 
eclipse it, part open before the divine lustre that streams 
from the love of the Cross. 



The bud withers, but no kindred bud takes its wither- 
ing to heart, or yearns for its renewal. But the bud that 
drops from a mother's bosom, overshadowed by the petals 
of her yearning love ; — tell us not that that has no re- 
newal, — no blossoming in more genial air ; for then you 
mock a deathless instinct ; then you would balk an inward 
spring that flows like the love of God himself. 



f 



LIVING WORDS. 73 

The productions of the press, fast as steam can make 
and carry them, go abroad through all the land, silent as 
snow-flakes, but potent as thunder. It is an additional 
tongue of steam and lightning, by which a man speaks 
his first thought, his instant argument or grievance, to 
millions in a day. 

Nature is God perpetually working; and we need 
only look around us to see and to feel that truth of a 
Providence to which our deepest instincts turn. 



Setting is preliminary to brighter rising ; decay is a 
process of advancement ; death is the condition of higher 
and more fruitful life. 



Who has not been glad to plunge his individuality into 
this ocean of superintending goodness and wisdom, and 
feel, through the struggle and fever of his own little life, 
the Infinite Heart beating under all things ? 



Be not so solicitous to rebut all suspicion of " green- 
ness" as to come out in vice full blossom. Better live 
green and die green than to be thus rotten before your 
prime. 



74 LIVING WORDS. 

Wherever wc gaze, wherever we explore, we behold 
the features of creative skill steeped in the smile of crea- 
tive love. 



If that philosophy which repudiates whatever is not 
useful had its way it would daub the oracles of song with 
plaster, it would break up the master-pieces of sculpture 
to macadamize roads, and send the poets to the lunatic 
asylum. 

Let us make a proper distinction between the economy 
of living and the economy of life. A man may find it 
necessary to scrimp his body, but it does not follow that 
therefore he should starve his soul. And sometimes 
when, as he thinks, he shrewdly saves a dollar, he may 
be doing a more extravagant thing than the profligate 
who spends one. He is doing an extravagant thing if 
merely for the sake of saving his dollar he bars out some 
opportunity to become richer or better in his intellect or 
his heart. 



When we save our money at the expense of our souls, 
then saving money is not economy ; — it is the worst kind 
of wastefulness Let us enrich our souls as we law- 
fully may with all beauty, with all truth and excellence ; 
for this is the real economy of life. 



LIVING WORDS. 75 

Old age ought to be 3 and essentially is a manifestation 
of what is hidden in the depths of a man's nature. It 
might be, it should be, not an exhibition of crackling 
impotence and gloomy decay, but the very crown and 
ripening of life, — the symbol of maturity, not of dissolu- 
tion. So rich in its resources, so bright in its memories, 
so calm in the fulness of its harmony, so lifted up by a 
grand faith, as to over-top all melancholy associations. It 
is so in the natural world In this luscious au- 
tumn, these days of marvellous beauty, the earth appears 
like a pallette set with gorgeous colors, and enriched with 

a haze of sifted gold It seems as though from 

every crypt and secret vein affluent nature had summoned 
all her riches for one full, glorious manifestation ; and all 
her hidden beauty swims to the surface. The buried 
seed, the dew that came by night, the unregarded sweat 
of human labor, bursts out in purple grapes and yellow 
corn. The secret juices of plant and tree tingle in quiv- 
ering gold and blush in crimson. And every lowly and 
lovely thing that came and perished long ago has, as it 
were, left its legacy, and is represented in this congress 
of yearly glories. The latter spring has bequeathed the 
color of its sky, the early summer the softness of its 
breath, and every little flower its peculiar tint, to be 
woven in this mantle of serial gauze, and to suffuse the 
wood3 with this unconsuming and prismatic flame. In 
the latest hours of the year come out the full glory and 



76 LIVING WORDS. 

richness of the year. Why should it not be so with the 
latest hours of human life? Why should these bear 
merely a record of waste, and feebleness, and unfulfilled 
opportunities? Why only dark with regrets and fore- 
bodings ? Why only wear the look of a ruin, with its 
broken casements and shattered walls ? . . . . Surely a 
genuine old age, a Christian completion of existence, will 
wear a kind of October glory, even when the body is 
broken and the flesh is weak. It will correspond with 
autumn not only as the last but as the richest of the 
cycle. Then, in clear points of mental flame, in glories 
of faith, in the beauty of love, every tint of the soul, 
every gentle and holy affection, all the juices of secret 
devotion, every process of silent, inner, faithful work, will 
come out to complete and adorn the life of a man, and the 
vestibule of death will be a gate- way of coronation. 



The best men are not those who have waited for 
chances, but taken them, — besieged the chance, con- 
quered the chance, and made the chance their servitor. 



It is not splendors, principalities and powers, that mark 
the grades of being, and determine the footprints of prog- 
ress. It is the mind, the soul of man. 



LIVING WORDS. 77 

See how things in the world of nature live up to their 
best, and in their sphere fulfil a perfect work. Now, as at 
the first, it may be said of these that they are "good." 
But how shall we gain such a benediction? Only as we, 
too, live up to our best, — as we come into conscious har- 
mony, not only with nature, but with the God of Nature, 
the God of Life. 



He is best qualified to be and to act who apprehends this 
state as an integral part of his moral and perpetual exist- 
ence, and who feels that each day, each hour, is precious 
in itself as belonging to the vast sweep of eternity. 



How often a new affection makes a new man. The 
sordid, cowering soul turns heroic. The frivolous girl 
becomes the steadfast martyr of patience and ministration, 
transfigured by deathless love. The career of bounding 
impulses turns into an anthem of sacred deeds. 



What spiritual benefit in lopping away one or two bad 
habits, while the original virus remains in the constitution ? 
One may lop away all bad habits, and yet, having no 
positive spiritual life, he is only like an old stump with 
the branches broken off. 



78 LIVING WORDS. 

We think too hardly, my friends, of positive pain. 
There is hope in that ; there is mercy in that ; but in 
loss, privation, deadness of faculty, — there 's retribution. 
There 's retribution; not in what is suffered by the man, 
but in what is wasted of the man. 



Principles of righteousness that are commended from 
lip to lip are for us worth nothing until they are coined 
in our own hearts, stamped with the image and super- 
scription of our own personality, and poured into the 
world by our own positive endeavor. 



There is a substantial ground of rest for us when we 
actually feel that God knows our hearts clear through, 
and do not try to hide ourselves, or disguise anything 
that is within us from his eye, but in simple confession of 
our sinfulness rely upon his mercy and his help. 



How much in this world is charged to chance or for- 
tune, or veiled under a more devout name, and accorded 
to Providence; while, when we come to look honestly 
into affairs, we find it to be a debt of our own accumula- 
tion, and one which w T e must inevitably pay. 



LIVING WORDS. 79 

The faculty by which we convince ourselves of any 
veracity in the reports of our senses is an inward faculty. 
And if we rely upon this in its report of that which comes 
through the senses, shall we not rely upon it when it re- 
ports that which comes more immediately to itself? And 
if by the decisions of the mind we accept the facts of an 
external world, shall we not by its decisions also accept 
the existence of spiritual realities ? If the reports of this 
inward witness are not veracious, what reports are vera- 
cious ? If man does not know the lines of eternal recti- 
tude, if he sees no real distinction between right and 
wrong by the help of conscience, then what does he know 
or perceive ? If the soul turned towards the Infinite, in 
its quivering awe, in its joyful dependence, does not dis- 
cern God, what power in all our complex being have we, 
and what objects are real ? 



It is God's work we do whenever we perform the right 
thing let what will oppose itself; and who can limit the 
uses which God thus makes of his instruments ? He does 
not require great things to effect his great ends ; — not 
always a battle or a treaty, a mission or a martyrdom. 
Your little act of faith and fortitude ; — he may take it 
up and weave it conspicuously among the splendors of his 
unfolding plan. 



SO LIVING WORDS. 

What a blessing man acknowledges in sleep, whose 
soft oblivion makes an island of every day, and breaks 
the hold of continuous cave ; that cools the hot brain, and 
bathes the weary eye-lids, and lets the buffeted and 
foundering heart cast anchor every night in some harbor 
of happy dreams. He feels the beneficence of that law 
which makes even misery halt, and besieging fortune 
strike its tents, and in the great .democracy of nature 
levels the children of men in common helplessness and 
common need ; finding no conditions so wretched, no spot 
so bleak that even the most desperate cannot recline nearer 
to the bosom of the common mother, and forget for a little 
while their sorrow and their shame. 



Christ's revelation of the All-encompassing Provi- 
dence over-arches us at times like the clear night-sky, 
when one halts on his march through the desert, breath- 
ing a blessed coolness over our parched and weary 
nature, and anRdst the lonely waste, the drifting sand, 
and the fluttering tents, looking down upon us with a 
great and tender assurance of permanence and peace. 



Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly 
drops out of the darkness, and falls as a golden link in the 
great chain of order. 



LIVING WORDS. 81 

Always the idea of unbroken quiet broods around the 
grave. It is a port where the storms of life never beat, 
and the forms that have been tossed on its chafing waves 
lie quiet forevermore. There the child nestles as peace- 
fully as ever it lay in its mother's arms, and the work- 
man's hands lie still by his side, and the thinker's brain 
is pillowed in silent mystery, and the poor girl's broken 
heart is steeped in a balm that extracts its secret woe, and 
is in the keeping of a charity that covers all blame. 



To-morrow may never come to us. We do not live 
in to-morrow. We cannot find it in any of our title- 
deeds. The man who owns whole blocks of real estate, 
and great ships on the sea, does not own a single minute 
of to-morrow. To-morrow ! It is a mysterious possibility, 
not yet born. It lies under the seal of midnight, — be- 
hind the veil of glittering constellations. 



f 

The devil has been painted swarthy, cloven-footed, 
horned, and hideous. Do we expect to see him in that 
shape? 0, surely it would be better for us, if he did 
come in that shape ! The trouble is the devil never does 
come in that shape. He comes by chance, with unregis- 
tered signals, and in all sorts of counterfeit present- 
ments. 



82 LIVING WORDS. 

Who shall say that prayer has no ground of reason 
because science cannot find any avenue for it? Who 
shall forbid this instinct that cleaves every cloud strait 
up to God, because visibly he does not reach down his 
hand? 



The dreaded morrow, that has cast its gloom over so 
many yesterdays, and prevented our needed sleep ; how 
often have we found its anticipated trials soften and 
dwindle, as we passed under their shadow ! As we 
entered into the cloud some heavenly voice has saluted 
us, inspiring us with courage and with hope; some un- 
expected help has encountered us; we have seen some- 
thing to mitigate our grief; some clue has led us through 
the perplexity, and the foreboding ill has broken and 
vanished as we drew near. Or, if the full tide of antici- 
pated trouble has rolled over us, we have been enabled to 
bear it, and jre are now enriched in life with so much 
additional experience. 



What is it that so far has failed ? Surely not your 
conviction that this is God's right, God's truth, which 
you have been striving to maintain. And for any cause 
there can be no absolutely fatal symptom, except a dem- 
onstration of its falsity. 



LIVING WORDS. 83 

Revolution does not insure progress. You may over- 
turn thrones, but what proof that anything better will 
grow upon the soil ? The deepest woes of humanity are 
not cured by universal fraternity and soup-kitchens. 
The social millennium is not based on barricades. 



This great gospel is not a cramped, feeble, narrow 
thing of times and seasons ; but wherever God can be wor- 
shipped, or humanity be served, or the spirit of love mani- 
fested, there is the work of true religion. 



Love by its own hidden processes will secure the ends 
of love. Humanity, swept and winnowed, trampled down 
and thwarted, fading and vanishing away, is taken up 
and borne along in the scope of His great plan who doeth 
all things well. 



The slender conduits of a flower or a leaf, the finest 
nerves in an insect's eye, are regulated by unerring laws. 
Surely, then, the career of nations is not without an ap- 
pointed orbit. 

The fatal fact in the case of a hypocrite is that he 
is a hypocrite. 



84 LIVING WORDS. 

In every person's character — his inward, spiritual life 
— is the true private account of stock and capital, of 
profit and loss. merchant or mechanic, so anxiously 
balancing your accounts for the year ! there is stated the 
precise amount of your real wealth, — the only scrip and 
substance you can carry with you when the years pass 
away. politician! — man in office and in power! — 
there is the register that enrolls your actual honors, and 
shows to what you are elected. The types of character 
stamp deeper than printing-presses, and will tell your 
story better than all the newspapers. mariner ! there 
is the log-book of years, declaring what course you have 
held in your earthly voyage ; there is the chart that indi- 
cates upon what shoals and breakers you may be driving 
now. Young man, young woman, there is the journal 
of your daily life ; there is the remembrancer that records 
no compliments, no flatteries, — only the plain, honest 
truth. 



We do not compromise our own faith by admitting the 
honesty of another's doubt. 



There is no mockery like the mockery of that spirit 
that looks around in the world and believes that all is 
emptiness. 



LIVING WORDS. 85 

Say, imperial diplomatists, who are now about settling 
" the balance of Europe," will you settle the balance of 
crushed affections and sore bereavements ? Can you piece 
together broken hearts, and tie up their shattered strings 
with your red tape ? In the parchments which you will 
exchange with your courtesies and champagne, have you 
estimated the value of desolate homesteads, — of bones 
and sinews made of stuff as good as your own now bleach- 
ing in the ruts of battle-fields ? Have you settled that 
balance of everlasting justice and humanity which God 
finally holds in his hands, thinking perhaps that your 
crowns and sceptres in one scale will weigh down the heaps 
of slaughtered men in the other? forgetting, it may be, 
the unmoving shadows of widowhood and orphanage that 
will brood amid the festal lights, and that undertone of a 
vast sorrow which will mingle with the salvoes of artillery 
and the billowy Te Dennis that shall proclaim that the 
nations are once more " at peace ! n 



The creed of the true saint is to make the best of life, 
and make the most of it. 



Do not ask if a man has been through college. Ask if 
a college has been through him ; — if he is a walking 
university. 



86 LIVING WORDS. 

One day, walking over a barren and stony piece of 
ground, I came upon a little patch of verdure starred all 
over with yellow flowers of the later summer, and as it 
opened upon me so fresh and beautiful, as though it were 
spread out there simply to touch the sense of joy, and to 
add to the measure of boundless life, for the time it seemed 
to me as glorious as the firmament ; and the majesty of 
God was as palpable there, in that little, unconsidered 
plot, as among the splendors of the morning, or in the 
sparkling tent of midnight. 



We grow in artistic culture, we grow in ripeness and 
delicacy of taste, as we stand before the great masters, and 
drink in the fulness of their genius, rather than by per- 
plexed efforts to find out the processes of their work. So 
our sense of beauty and of grandeur grows as we lean 
upon the breast of nature, and let its moods and aspects 
pass into us, until morning, and midnight, and noontide 
splendor, and flushes of sunset, and rock, and woodland, 
and the vast, old sea, become tints and forces of our own 
being inwoven among the filaments of our innermost life. 
So, then, let our thoughts upon divine mysteries lead 
where they will, it is by looking upon the ideal of Jesus, 
and seeking to apply it in the practical results of righte- 
ousness that we add to our spiritual substance. 



LIVING WORDS. 87 

Great intellect and selfish impulses ; — that is devil 
nature. 



Man was sent into the world to be a growing and ex- 
haustless force. The world was spread out around him 
to be seized and conquered. Realms of infinite truth burst 
open above him, inviting him to tread those shining coasts 
along which Newton dropped his plummet^ and Herschel 
sailed, — > a Columbus of the skies. 



Neutral men are the devil's allies. 



Europe is all sown over with grains of gunpowder^ 
while the emissaries of its kings are industriously at work 
blowing out everything that looks like light, and quench- 
ing everything that * feels like fire. A comfortable time 
of it those continental kings must have, feeling as if their 
thrones were built against a powder-mill, with Guy 
Fawkes at the back door. 



The man of flie nineteenth century is a condensed 
Methuselah. 



88 LIVING WORDS. 

A boy ought to be like a cat, so that tumble him into 
the world any way he will strike upon his feet. 



We cannot plaster over these questions of poverty, and 
vice, and crime with a Christian sentiment of charity, or 
solve the great social problems suggested by them by the 
decent proprieties of alms-giving. You might as well 
attempt to put out the flames of Vesuvius with a bottle 
of Cologne water. 



The poorest beggar that walks the street is greater 
than colossal New York, with all its architectural grand- 
eur, and its crowded marts, and its laden ships. So 
man is greater than the church. Not the soul for the 
church, but the church for the soul. And whenever the 
soul is brought into communion with Christ, and the di- 
vine life obtained, the end of all is reached. 



Truth is new, as well as old. It has new forms ;^and 
where you find a new statement, an earnest statement, 
you may conclude that by the law of progress it is more 
likely to be a correct statement than that which has been 
repeated for ages by the lips of tradition. 



LIVING WORDS. 89 

Go to the man absorbed in this world of time and sense, 
and tell him of the peace of believing, of the satisfaction 
of love, of the beauty of holiness, and you talk to him of 
dreams and of shadows. He knows nothing of these 
things in himself, and therefore your words have no mean- 
ing for him. You talk to him, as it were, in a foreign 
dialect, and there are hardly any corresponding ideas in 
his experience which can furnish you with terms for the 

translation of joy, beauty, and God But when 

these earthly forms in which he trusted are stripped away 
and have crumbled down, the instincts within him are left 
free to awaken ; and then it is that the truth which Jesus 
utters — the blessed offer w r hich he makes — is compre- 
hended as it cannot be before. ! men come to the New 
Testament in a shady room, with the darkness of this 
world around them ; and then it is that like the myriad 
stars, that are only seen by night, the great texts that 
fell from the lips of Jesus shine out, and they awaken 
suggestions we never saw before, and which burst from 
them, kindling and blazing along the old lines that have 
been written there for nineteen hundred years. Then 
men begin to understand what is the burden and the 
application of such passages as '"Come unto me all ye 
that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 



Morality is but the vestibule of religion. 

8* 



90 LIVING WORDS. 

While with fevered and parched lips men lie around 
this old, mossy brink of worldly pleasure, — these crum- 
bling curb-stones of human graves, — and again and 
again come to lap there of that which cannot fill, and 
which never can satisfy, it is the glory of spiritual truth 
— of inward life, and peace, and righteousness — that 
with ever-enlarging capacity there is an ever-enlarging 
abundance, and as we crave more the more comes to us. 



All evil, in fact the very existence of evil, is inexpli- 
cable until we refer to the paternity of God. It hangs a 
huge blot in the universe until the orb of divine love rises 
behind it. In that apposition we detect its meaning. It 
appears to us but a finite shadow as it passes across the 
disc of infinite light. 



The most feeble and degraded of our race is separated 
by a broad line from all other creatures. There is a 
moral deep in him, a spiritual power, which, obscured as 
it is, is not the possession of any other earthly being, and 
is a dim image of the Eternal. Under the cloud of sin 
and the corruptions of sensualism there is embosomed an 
essence which reflects the overshadowing of its Infinite 
Original, and sparkles in response to the uncreated 
Light. 



LIVING WORDS. 91 

He who to-day utters a bold truth that seems to shock 
some old institution with the premonition of destruction, 
and that scares men from their propriety, will a hundred 
years hence be regarded as a remarkably conservative 
man. And yet the people who stand peculiarly upon 
what they call the foundations of conservatism, and hold to 
hard, practical facts, now stand upon that which one hun- 
dred years ago was rank heresy. So the world moves ; 
a divine, living current flows under the stony pavement 
of daily custom ; so God draws us through space ; so the 
currents run ; so the winds blow ; while all the while we 
think that things stand still, because we ourselves are 
disposed to stand still. Not at all. Abstractions move 
the world; ideas wear crowns, sway sceptres, and draw 
swords; and principles conquer. There is nothing so 
immutable as truth, nothing so fluent as error, though 
error stands surrounded by bastions, and moats, and cas- 
tles, and turrets, and towers, while truth is nothing but 
an humble cry in the wilderness, — a solitary idea that 
finds its home in a good man's heart. 



Before the love which is in God all things are sure 
to come round to his standard ; and the most giant iniquity 
of earth strikes its head at last against the beam of God's 
Providence and goes down. 



92 LIVING WORDS. 

Whatever theory we may entertain concerning pri- 
meval time, with whatever innocence it may have been 
peopled, with whatever glory adorned, it is not for us to 
sigh over its lost loveliness, or to cast back wistful glances 
upon its glimmering gates. The Gospel requires of us 
diligent hands, prayerful hearts, and aforioard look. It 
urges self-sacrifice, but it holds out a glorious expectancy. 
Humanity is in neither a state of decay nor of stagna- 
tion. It is moving, and moving for the better. Conti- 
nents of time and mountains of difficulty may stretch be- 
tween us and the glad era, but a serene light streams 
down from heaven upon the destinies of the race, and an 
auroral promise tints the horizon of the future. 



With infinite depths of truth, and an incessant spring of 
spiritual life, Christianity cannot be limited to any time, or 
petrified in any shape. It is fluent and eternal. The 
reconciling element of the world, it goes forth into every 
age, and responds to the deepest tone of want in every 
posture of humanity. 



The expression of God is in nature, and it never 
looks approvingly to the bad, nor inhospitable to the 
good. 



LIVING WORDS. 93 

A full and steady perception of God would melt every 
heart in homage before him. 



The ocean is beautiful, lulled to rest ; 

The pictured stars that gem its breast 

Are epitaphs, written upon the deep, 

Over the places where loved ones sleep. 

Beautiful, where no mortal eye 

Looks in on its gorgeous heraldry, 

Is the vast, deep sea ! And beautiful, too, 

Where it spreads to the gaze its expanded blue, 

Or reflects the clouds in their pomp unrolled, 

And moves in its glory of green and gold. 



Nature takes a higher aspect from places where good 
and memorable deeds have been done, and it lends to 
them a deeper charm. It is enriched with rarer sanctity; 
it sheds more blessed dew upon the spot where the hero 
struggled, or the martyr perished, or the righteous sleep. 
Palestine will always be a "Holy Land." 



God's work is freedom. Freedom is dear to his heart. 
He wishes to make man's will free, and at the same time 
wishes it to be pure, majestic, and holy. 



94 LIVING WORDS. 

Genius is the accumulated wealth of our humanity, — 
its most intense development concentrated at one point, and 
then -with clearer expression and with mysterious power 
shot back to us across the galvanic lines of thought and 
feeling. 



It is a great thing, when our Gethsemane hours come, 
— when the cup of bitterness is pressed to our lips, and 
when we pray that it may pass aw T ay, — to feel that it is 
not fate, that it is not necessity, but divine love for good 
ends working upon us. 



"When a man would send out the organ-music of in- 
spiring truth ; when he would sweep the entire diapason 
of patriotic and Christian sentiment ; when he would wake 
the land with some old passage of the past, or some jubi- 
lant strain of the future, — let him set his foot upon the 
pedal of Plymouth Kock, and strike the keys of Eanueil 
Hall ! * 



Character has more effect than anything else. Let 
a number of loud-talking men take up a particular ques- 
tion, and one man of character, of known integrity and 
beauty of soul, will outweigh them all in his influence. 



* At a Festival in Fanueil Hall. 



LIVING WORDS. 95 

In calm, fine nights of the latter summer, "when the 
woods are clothed with the luxuriance of maturity, and 
the corn stands fully ripe, — in the clear midnight, when 
all else is still, — there comes a manifestation as of the 
conscious earth communing with the conscious universe. 
There rises a low, deep murmur of the sea upon its shores, 
and the leaves shiver with a sudden ecstacy, and a light 
of answering gladness ripples along the firmament, and 
sparkles to the edge of the remotest constellations. It is 
as if nature herself knew the counsel that embosoms all 
things, and for a moment confessed the glorious purpose. 
This may be fancy, but surely it symbolizes a consoling 
fact. As in space, so in the immensity of God's plan, and 
among the ministering influences of his Providence, our 
world is carried onward ; with the graves of the saints and 
the martyrs on her breast, and the cresent good slowly 
spreading over her ; and the seeds of truth and righteous- 
ness, planted with great pains and buried often in seem- 
ing defeat, are swelling with life and bursting into 
victory. 



The excellence and inspiration of truth is in the pur- 
suit, not in the mere having of it. The pursuit of all 
truth is a kind of gymnastics; a man swings from one truth 
with higher strenth to gain another. The continual glory 
and joy is the possibility opening before us. 



9G LIVING WORDS. 

I believe all things lead to final joy ; I believe that 
the brightest flowering of existence will be in joy; that the 
atmosphere of heaven will be in joy. But it is not true 
that our being's end and aim, or rather that the object of 
this life, is merely to be happy and comforted. And 
therefore people make a great mistake who complain of 
religion because it does not remove all evils. 



The way to overcome evil is to love something that 
is good. No man in this world ever conquered evil 
merely by butting against it with his will, but by getting 
into positive love for goodness, by which this evil becomes 
hateful. 



"Let it pass from me," said Christ, in the agony of 
the garden, as the sweat fell like drops of blood upon the 
ground. Thank God that he prayed " Let this cup pass 
from me," and justified the trembling weakness of our 
humanity. If he had said " Let it come ; I can meet it," 
he would not have been a Christ. 



It is the penalty of fame that a man must ever keep 
rising. " Get a reputation and then go to bed," is the 
absurdest of all maxims. "Keep up a reputation or go 
to bed " would be nearer the truth. 



LIVING WORDS. 97 

He who has been wandering in the maze of false con- 
ceptions, and upon whom, at length, has burst the truth 
of God's paternity, opens his Bible as a new book. Chris- 
tianity spreads around him a firmament of sudden glory, 
and reveals to his eye unexpected riches. Knowing that 
he is our Father, through the storm and the night we 
may trustingly proceed ; for the star of his compassion 
never sets, and he spans our voyage with a zodiac of 
promises. 

Strike upon what path of moral attainment you may, 
that path intersects with and involves all others. 



We speak of the works of God as though we meant 
merely this finished material universe thereby. Yet he 
has been continually working even there. The earth in 
its convulsions is nothing but a rocking-cradle for the 
various stages of progress and development. And when 
each one has reached its full period of development, then 
the foundations of a new epoch are cradled upon them, they 
become the tomb-stones of the past, and new forms of life 
come forth. And so it is in spiritual and moral things; God 
is continually doing a work. And when we have reached 
the extreme of our effort, have gone as far as we can, it is 
an indication that we are to stand still and see what God's 
working will be. 



98 LIVINQ words/ 

The silent stars that stand sentinal at the gates of. 
heaven keep a glorious secret ; the dark, still curtains of 
the grave, that folds its heavy veil before me, hides a 
great secret. Those processes of mystery, that are so 
silent in human life and human affairs, are all full of a 
great secret, — be patient, and wait. The faith that tells 
me to do this is the faith of development, of movement ; 
the faith that enables me to be something higher and do 
something better. 



The ascetic is often nothing more than the sensualist 
upon the obverse side. Each is engaged by the appetites, 
and each is spiritually hindered by them ; although the 
one is doing his best to serve them, and the other his best 
to extirpate them. The true method is simply to let 
them alone, — to leave them in the orbit God has ordained 
for them, guarding against them not by arbitrary restric- 
tions or fixed embankments, but by positive life and pure 
affections. 



In proportion to the difficulty of the endeavor is the 
glory of the achievement. The rich man who complies 
with the terms of discipleship is a stronger man than he 
who glides into them almost by the sheer pressure of 
poverty. 



LIVING WORDS. 99 

When Douglas was carrying the heart of Bruce in 
the silver case, to bury it in the Holy Land, he was at- 
tacked by a body of Turks ; and finding the result some- 
what doubtful he took the silver case and flung it among 
the ranks of the enemy, saying, " 0, brave heart of Bruce ! 
go forward as you have ever done, and I will follow. " 
Take the beating heart of Christ and throw it among your 
temptations, and follow where that leads, by its divine im- 
pulses, by its eternal recognition of that which alone is 
right, and good, and true. 



It may not be an invariable test, but certainly there is 
ground of doubt as to the faithfulness of that man whose 
way in the world is always smooth and easy. 



All nature is a vast symbolism : Every material fact 
has sheathed within it a spiritual truth. 



The elements of genius need the controlling power of 
a still deeper life ; else that which astonishes and dazzles 
the world often burns by making wreck and fuel of those 
finer sensibilities and more eloquent passions which sepa- 
rate the man of genius from the rest of his kind 3 and fit 
him to be their oracle. 



100 LIVING WORDS. 

The peculiar sympathy of God with human souls, over 
and above the sympathy that he has with the round globe 
that he has sent into space, with the little violet which he 
wets with dew, with the flower whose cup he fills with 
golden sunshine, with the cattle for whom he has spread a 
carpet on a thousand hills, — the sympathy of God with 
the being that is like unto himself in deathless aspiration 
of faculties could only be expressed by a person. Na- 
ture does not express it ; — nature does not touch us as 
he did who came to consort with our weakness, to stoop to 
our lowliness, to pity us under the burden of our sins, and 
bring us home to God. 



solitary heart ! darkened, troubled soul ! when 
you want to know who is dealing with you, do not take 
the telescope and try to find him by piercing the blank 
immensity of space ; do not go to philosophy, spun from 
poor human conceits, that may bewilder and lead astray. 
Turn over the leaves of the Evangelists, — old leaves, wet 
by a million tears, and consecrated by a million prayers, 
— over which struggling hearts have breathed with hope 
and trust ; — come to these pages ; take the delineation 
of Jesus there. They will tell you what God is, who is 
dealing with you in the strange, mysterious passages of 
life. And if you want to know what man should be, 
there it is. 



LIVING WORDS. 101 

As the eye requires the light, and is incomplete with- 
out it, so does the human soul crave, — so is it not only 
incomplete, but inexplicable, without God and immor- 
tality. 



The themes which the poet consecrated ages since are 
just as dear to us now, — are as fresh and beautiful as 
the water and the light. The strains with which he urged 
his own generation to freedom stir our pulses like a 
trumpet. His magic line touches the fountain of our tears, 
and we weep at the woe3 which he bewailed. His words 
of love, and truth, and gladness echo from heart to heart 
forever, because mankind is one. 



Wherever man thinks or acts broods the idea of 
God. It is the germ and meaning of every form of wor- 
ship. No religion, however rude or gross its expression, 
is wholly arbitrary. It never originated with kings or 
priests. If any one thinks so let him explain how kings 
and priests came by the idea, and how it was so readily 
received by men, and how it is that in one form or another 
it appears all over the earth. Religion cannot be arbi- 
trary, — cannot be a fabrication. It is the breaking forth 
of a necessity of our nature. It is the human spirit ac- 
knowledging and seeking its source. 
9* 



102 LIVING WORDS. 

Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, 
but in the inward thing we are. To be is the great 
thing. 



The very fact that great intellectual problems baffle 
us, — that the realm of truth seems endless, — that we 
stagger before the great problems of existence, and long, 
to know them, — is to me prophetic of a higher state, 
when I shall know them, and go on to know more and 
more. 



It is not the man that gives me most of outward things 
that helps me to live ; but the man who gives me thoughts 
and ideas by which a wider sweep of beauty opens to my 
vision, and kindles in me holy affections, by which I rise 
nearer to God. 



Christianity has no alliance with cowardice, or wat- 
ery sentimentalism. It lies at the roots of all genuine 
manliness, and the results of its development are before 
the world. It has furnished the grandest examples of 
strength of purpose and practical power. It has been the 
animating impulse in the lives of the truly great, and 
has rolled through the veins of heroes. 



LIVING WORDS. 103 

Our faith in the miracles is in this : that we believe in 
them because of Christ, rather than in Christ because of 
them. Such a life as his was competent to perform such 
miracles. The great wonder of all, in this sinful world, 
is, that once there stood on the platform of actual life a 
being like that ; that once that divine ideal rose like the 
sun in our horizon ; that once that pure, self-sacrificing 
love made itself manifest. It was not in man's heart to 
conceive it, nor in his mind to make it ; but all that is 
beautiful in our ideal, all that is noble in our inspiration, 
has been caused by it. 



In this business-world a good many set up a standard 
that slants a little from the divine perpendicular. 



Religion sows within us the seeds of an undying joy 
that fails not when outward means of happiness fail, and 
sorrows darken, and cares appall. It sheds abroad a holy 
serenity in the heart, and imparts a calm lustre to the 
brow. It is a principle of truth, and therefore it allows 
us nothing that is treacherous and wrong ; but all that 
makes happy, and grateful, and good it opens for us in 
abundant measure. It reveals new sources of happiness. 
It makes the spire of grass and the star beautiful minis- 
ters of delight. 



104 LIVING WORDS. 

The loss of fortune to a true man is but the trumpct- 
cliallenge to renewed exertion, not the thunder-stroke of 
destruction. He is not a true man who is broken down 
by the loss of worldly fortune ; he is not a true man who 
Bays, "Everything is lost: the decks are swept clean, the 
masts are swept overboard, and I am a poor, foundering 
wreck, without a hope of life." No such thing. You are 
a man ; have a man's heart in you. God is over you ; you 
have health and a soul, and the world is wide. Shame 
on you, if for any transient loss of fortune, any darkening 
change in your worldly condition, you give everything 
up. 



The glory of the visible creation is, or would be, a per- 
fect man. There are beautiful creations all around us 
that manifest the wisdom and goodness of God. But the 
Father has given nothing so glorious and so precious as 
the human soul. The flower, and the ocean, and the sun- 
beam are the works of his hands ;. but this, the soul, is 
the representative of his very nature. The morning star 
shines with a perishable lustre ; the sea with all its strength 
shall be rolled together as a vapor, and pass away ; but a 
pure, righteous, and loving soul has in it the eternity and 
the likeness of God, and shall survive all outward and 
material things. 



LIVING WORDS. 105 

What if a boulder from the pre- Adamite world should 
crash against the first chapter of Genesis, can that quench 
your thirst for divine life, or cancel the fact that Christ 
satisfies that thirst ? He has little faith in the Bible who 
turns his reason into a dark-lantern to read it by. Fear 
not that the freight of divine truth which that book 
carries sublimely over the waves of ages will ever be 
wrecked on any coast of scientific discovery. In no 
depth of strata shall we find anything older than the God 
it reveals. In no new system unfolding from the bright 
and awful mysteries of the sky will this yearning, strug- 
gling soul discover anything so needed as the salvation 
which that Bible brings, and the immortal bliss to which' 
it leads the way. 



The great doctrine of human brotherhood — of the 
worth of a man, — that he is not to be trod upon as a foot- 
stool, or dashed in pieces as a worthless vessel, — and the 
doctrines that grow out of this — the doctrines of popular 
liberty, education and reform ; — all these have become 
active and every-clay truths only under the influence of 
Christianity. 



Despite all refinement, the light and habitual taking 
of God's name betrays a coarse nature and a brutal will. 



106 LIVING WORDS/ 

The very elements of democratic liberty are the ele- 
ments of despotism, when they are monopolized and 
turned in for the behoof of a single man ; and it is possi- 
ble that they may prove to be nothing more than ele- 
ments of despotism, multiplied by thousands, so long as 
they are exclusive, selfish, and greedy elements. If we 
quit the old heavy barge and take a steamboat, it will be 
better or worse as we use it. It will carry us quicker 
into port, but it will carry us quicker to destruction. It 
will carry us more rapidly through the Highlands of the 
Hudson, if we are inclined to go that way ; it will carry us 
more rapidly over the Falls of Niagara, if we are inclined 
to go that way. And with these grand ideas, with these 
potent elements, we as a people are just in that critical 
state whence we shall emerge into the noblest social form 
the world has ever yet seen, or give birth to the most 
hideous despotism it has ever borne upon its surface. 



In studying the fact of human progress, as affected by 
Christianity, we must employ a standard equal to the 
magnitude of the movement. We must not consider 
merely the access or recess in isolated instances. We must 
examine the tide-water marks of centuries, and then we 
shall find that the great deep, as a whole, has been heaved 
up to a higher level. 



LIVING WORDS. 107 

The moment Christianity struck the earth it was evi- 
dent that a new and astonishing force was in the world, 
— a force affecting the mass of humanity, and not merely 
a few individuals, a sect, or a nation. Yes, a new force it 
was that burst as it were from the very core of the world, 
breaking the old order of things in pieces, dashing down 
its marble superstitions, injecting a distinct peculiarity 
among its granitic customs, and leaving a chasm between 
ancient and modern history. That dividing-line which no 
eye can miss is the threshold whence the Kingdom of 
God began its march through the earth. Since then it 
has been evident that a moral power is among men, ac- 
complishing vast and blessed changes. 



No man, however logically he may have arrived at the 
conclusion that he sins by God's adamantine decree, — 
that he is fated to be wicked, — fails to feel rebuked when 
he does sin. Conscience mutters its thunder against the 
wrong, and a sense of retribution opens in his soul. But 
why the indignant remonstrance, why the foreboding fear, 
if he has done only what he was obliged to do ? Say 
what he will, his moral nature, as authentic and as infal- 
lible as his intellect, assures him by its rebuke that he 
had a power of choice, and that having freely chosen the 
wrong he must pay the penalty of his election. 



108 LIVING WORDS. 

Life is the greatest thing that could be given to us. 
It is the greatest thing which man can communicate to 
his fellow-man, when he enlarges in any way his life, 
— gives him a new faculty. When the artist finds new 
beauty; when a new fact is discovered; when Galileo 
turned his leaden tube to the skies, and saw the phases of 
Venus and the satellites of Jupiter ; when Columbus re- 
turns with tattered sails to bring the glory of a new 
world ; when Cuvier reads the earth in its mineralogy and 
its animal structure, passing from fibre to fibre, from or- 
gan to organ, until he reaches the highest truth ; when- 
ever human philanthropy gives new utterance to the 
divine love, — it adds to the life of humanity, and con- 
tributes the greatest thing a man can give to the human 
race. Christ has enlarged it more than all. He has given 
the whole soul life. He has brought it into infinite com- 
munion with the Father. He has made the eternal world 
real to us. 



God's sovereignty is his absolute control. His will is 
the disposition with which he wields that control. 



"We pray that God's will may be done. But do we'do it. 
Let each look into his own heart. How is that ? Is there 
no moral dislocation, — no resistance to God's will there ? 



LIVING WOEDS. 109 

True, our religion was cradled amid the despotisms of 
antiquity. It commanded allegiance to Csesar, and for- 
bade political resistance by its disciples at that day. But 
he who imagines that therefore Christianity sanctions des- 
potism, or absolute monarchy, or social inequality, or a 
privileged perpetual ruling order of men, must reason 
from most narrow premises. Christianity came prepared 
for a gradual work, — to perform its labor among men as 
the sunshine and moisture do theirs ; to bring its ideas to 
perfection among men as the reed is brought forth to har- 
vest. Calm, serene, acquiescent, it laid down its princi- 
ples, knowing that in process of ages their triumph was 
certain, — knowing that by and by, as the sure results 
of natural law, the throne of the tyrant would crumble, 
the chains of the bondman be broken, and the sword of 
rapine and war sheathed forever. 



To Him who rolls yon spheres in their path of light, 
and pours out " sweet influences " from their golden urns ; 
who holds the earth in His hand, and brings the seasons 
in their course ; who regards the fall of the sparrow, and 
numbers the hairs of our head, — to Him it is fitting that 
from the altar of each heart prayer and pious confidence 
should ascend for all the destinies of the future.* 

* Fast Day. 
10 



110 LIVING WORDS* 

This is the day on which the old Church celebrates 
with peculiar honor the resurrection of Jesus. As 
though it -were a new truth, the bells of Easter morning 
have pealed round the world the glad announcement that 
he who had slept in the bosom of the earth, at early dawn 
withdrew the eclipse of death, and broke forth from the 
sepulchre — the Lord of Life and Glory. And as the 
mighty declaration echoes in our ears, and our torpid 
worldliness is shaken by the rush of angels' feet, is it 
not indeed like a new truth to realize by this resurrec- 
tion that we too shall live forever ? — that the shadows 
which fled from the Saviour's tomb were as the veils of our 
own mortality vanishing in the light of God ? If this be 
so, then let us live no more in shadows, but in realities. 
Let the prayer that Christ taught us, and which we so 
often need among the broken passages of life, foretoken 
the verities and lift us to the communion of heaven. 



Even yet Christ Jesus has to lie out in waste places 
very often, because there is no room for him in the inn, — 
no room for him in our hearts, because of our worldliness. 
There is no room for him even in our politics and religion. 
There is no room in the inn, and we put him in the man- 
ger, and he lies outside of our faith, coldly and dimly 
conceived by us. « . 



01 



LIVING WORDS. Ill 

We are conscious of a will independent and personal. 
In this we find a strong demonstration of the existence of 
a God. For the experience of a will in ourselves renders 
us capable of detecting the indications of another and a 
divine will in the works of the universe. 



Profaneness is an awful vice. Whose name is it 
you so lightly use ? That name of God ! Have you 
ever pondered its meaning? Have you ever thought 
ivhat it is that you mingle thus with your passion and 
your wit ? It is the name of him whom the angels wor- 
ship; and whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain. 



The scholar is more encumbered by the consciousness 
of what he lacks than by the wealth of his acquisitions ; 
and the saint is so busy with what is yet required that he 
has little time to count what has been achieved. 



Belief in God does not rest upon a mere doctrine of 
logic, which some other statement of logic may come and 
upset. It is one of those primal facts in the human soul 
which no mere logic has established nor can refute. 



112 LIVING WORDS. 

Only by the love of God, in whom all truth and 
righteousness arc centered, do you get true light to see 
evil and to hate evil as you should. 



In the revelation of the Father the majesty of God is 
brought down to us ? his infinity personified, and his ex- 
haustless love tenderly expressed. Without this, how 
awful, how overwhelming would be the act of devotion ! 
Science is daily revealing to us a wider scope and a loftier 
grandeur in the universe. To the exploring eye it opens 
new vistas of creation, and pours upon its dazzled vision 
the brightness of innumerable suns. And among these 
dimly swings this atom of a world, and far beyond all 
reaches the infinity of God ! How could we have confi- 
dence to look up to him, through all these countless myr- 
iads and this intolerable splendor ? And again, when we 
consider his holiness and our impurity, — the awfulness 
of God and the insignificance of man, — were it not for his 
own help we should not dare to approach him. But this 
revelation of " The Father" has swept away all the bar- 
riers of distance ; it has streamed into our souls through all 
the glories of the universe ; it has touched us with the in- 
timate nearness, the infinite condescension of God, and 
gathered into that one name all that is venerable with all 
that is lovely. 



LIVING WORDS/ 113 

It is the great peculiarity of many of the Psalms that 
they speak from and they speak to the inward life. 
There is no stamp of external history upon them, — no 
finger-mark of age or place. They are an artesian well of 
thought and sentiment, that has been sunk through the 
crust of all centuries, whence the human soul may draw 
and drink, and recognize the deep under-spring of its own 
experience. In one word, they are essentially of the soul 3 
and so time and space are canceled by them. They are 
the language of a common humanity, whose emphasis is 
in every needy, or troubled, or rejoicing heart, and is fit- 
ted to all lives. If one wants expressions to convey what 
is deep in him he can find those expressions nowhere so 
fully and so readily as here. So the Psalms live forever, 
and are little affected by the criticism that may break off 
bits of Genesis or flaw the book of Kings. Touching 
God and the human soul, they glide over all things else 
in the great ground-swell of spiritual truth. 



The letter of the Scripture may be questioned and 
argued, but you cannot question the love of the Father 
nor the gift of the Son. My heart felt this when I laid 
my loved child to rest, and your science on all its burning 
axles cannot grind from my heart all the comfort God's 
love gave me then. 
10* 



114 LIVING WORDS. 

A direct answer to prayer from God does not imply 
any change in him nor in his ordinances ; but simply that 
in prayer a certain instrumentality is used, upon the ex- 
ercise of which certain results will follow, which would 
not ensue without the use of this instrumentality. It is 
an ordinance of God that the harvest shall depend upon 
the sowing of seed. If that instrumentality is not em- 
ployed no result follows. But still, the possibilities all 
exist, whether the means are used or not ; and should it 
have so happened that man had sowed the seed but once 3 
contrary to all human experience, past and future, a har- 
vest would have sprung up. But would this unusual 
fact have violated any law of nature? Certainly not. 
The strange result would have indicated simply a compli- 
ance with established terms, which compliance had not 
been previously rendered. So is it, as I conceive, with 
prayer. It is a spiritual instrumentality, upon the em- 
ployment of which certain results are contingent. And 
that God should grant peculiar and direct blessings upon 
the touching of that one spring, which he will give in no 
other way, is no more miraculous than that he should give 
the harvest when the seed is sown. To say that he grants 
answers to prayer as well as to labor is only saying that 
man works with God and God with man in more ways 
than one. How he answers prayer is a mystery, but it is 
no more a mystery than the process which converts the 
kernel into the full corn in the ear, — than the connection 



LIVING WORDS. 115 

between thought and action, — than the existence of 
God, and the methods of his communication with the 
human soul. 



There is no controlling force, there is no permanent 
dominion in the universe, but that of love ; and every age 
more and more clearly indicates this truth. The Spirit 
which is to sink into the hearts of men, and subdue the 
evil that is there, — the Spirit before which the desert 
shall blossom as the rose, and the world be transfigured 
with the glory of the millennial day, — is that which was 
manifested when God gave his only-begotten Son. The 
greatest instrument of power and victory ever sent into 
the world is the cross. 



We not only give an undue exaltation to the appetites 
when we yield them a blind service, but when we concen- 
trate upon them a microscopic surveillance. It is a 
grave idea of heaven to conceive it as one set of external 
circumstances, which we attain by escaping from another 
set here below. It is a crude religiousness which seeks to 
glorify the future life by depreciating this, or that villi- 
fies the body in order to exalt the soul. It is a great 
mistake to confound extatic feelings and super-mundane 
moods with essential righteousness. 



116 LIVING WORDS. 

Self-conceit and haughtiness, or fulness of soul, are 
barriers to progress. They are generally the landmarks 
of a shallow attainment. The true man never surfeits 
upon his attainments, but probes his deficiencies and sum- 
mons his ideals. 



The world is generally a reflex of ourselves. If you 
find a man disposed to complain of the coldness of the 
world, you will find that he has never brought anything 
into the world to warm it, but is a personal lump of ice 
set in the midst of it. If you find a man who complains 
that the world is all base and hollow, tap him, and he 
will probably ring base and hollow. And so, in the 
other way, a kind man will probably find kindness every- 
where about him. - 



That which positively enriches the universe is spiritual 
life. 



In a contented disposition there exists a magic power 
over circumstances which evokes a hidden beauty from 
unlikely things, finds marvellous sweetness in a crust of 
bread, and hangs bare walls with shapes of glory. And 
not only is such a disposition satisfied with little, but 
under the chemistry of right affections that little becomes 
indefinitely expansive and fruitful, 



LIVING WORDS. 117 

A patient and humble temper gathers blessings that 
are marred by the peevish and overlooked by the as- 
piring. 



"What right have we to celebrate Christmas unless 
Christ has come to us ? It is not a mere historical event, 
but a spiritual conception, to be celebrated. When he 
comes to the soul in spirit and power, — when we feel the 
truth of what he says to us, "I am come that they might 
have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," 
— then indeed over the dark soul there comes a brightness 
greater than that which floated in the night sky and lit 
up the lonely plains of Judea. Then indeed we get the 
meaning of that angelic chorus as never before : " Glory 
to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to 
men." Then ring out the chiming harmonies of life and 
nature. Then proclaim Christmas morning to the human 
soul. Then, then celebrate with double joy the advent of 
redemption. 



Let us not fear that the issues of natural science shall 
be scepticism or anarchy. Through all God's works 
there runs a beautiful harmony. The remotest truth in 
his universe is linked to that which lies nearest the 
throne. 



118 LIVING WORDS. 

Hark ! hark ! with harps of gold, 
What anthems do they sing ? 

The radiant clouds have backward rolled, 
And angels smite the string. 
" Glory to God !" — bright wings 
Spread glist'ning and afar, 

And on the hallowed rapture rings 
From circling star to star. 

" Glory to God ! " repeat 
The glad earth and the sea ; 

And every wind and billow fleet 
Bears on the jubilee. 
Where Hebrew bard hath sung, 
Or Hebrew seer hath trod, 

Each holy spot has found a tongue : 
"Let glory be to God. 7 ' 

Soft swells the music now 

Along that shining choir, 
And every seraph bends his brow 

And breathes above his lyre. 

What words of heavenly birth 

Thrill deep our hearts again, 
And fall like dew-drops to the earth ? 

" Peace and good- will to men !" 



LIVING WOKDS. 119 

Soft ! — yet the soul is bound 

With rapture, like a chain : 
Earth, vocal, whispers them around. 

And heav'n repeats the strain. 

Sound, harps, and hail the morn 

With ev'ry golden string ; 
For unto us this day is born 

A Saviour and a King ! 



I, for one, have trust in these two things : that men 
■will grow better as they know more, and that nothing will 
ever come to wreck our confidence and our hope. 



Like the gush of the morning light, truth must go 
forward. 



Exactitude in science and reliance upon reason are to 
be welcomed as evidences of human progress, whatever 
befalls. 



It is as bad to clip conscience as to clip coin ; — it 
is as bad to give a counterfeit statement as a counterfeit 
bill. 



120 LIVING WORDS. 

It is a sublime thing to see Copernicus toiling without 
a telescope, with instruments of his own construction, 
with all the learned in Europe opposed to him in theory, 
drawing his threads of argument from the stars, and 
weaving in tissues of light his incontrovertible doctrine 
of the celestial motions. He did not live to hear the ad- 
miration that centuries have coupled with his name. But 
genius has its own reward ; and he, doubtless, felt it, when 
the sun took its station, the earth moved on, and the array 
of planets marched before him around their common 
centre. 



The great mind is ever humble and studious. 



In the old French ^Revolution, they set up the goddess 
of reason, and voted God out of the universe ; but God 
would not leave humanity, scoffing at him, forgetting him, 
but stood by his universe, and manifested himself in the 
midst of all their malignity : and all the ingenuity of man 
could not vote him out of it. Here is a sort of truth that 
nothing can reverse. There is a God Almighty ; and al- 
though men may wish there was not a God, and try to 
get rid of one, here the idea comes welling up in the soul, 
in the depth of his primal instincts, and men believe in it 
because they cannot help it. 



LIVING WORDS. 121 

The worst effect of sin is within, and is manifest not in 
poverty, and pain, and bodily defacement, but in the dis- 
crowned faculties, the unworthy love, the low ideal, the 
brutalized and enslaved spirit. 



Every phase of this life shows that it is disciplinary. 
But for what is its discipline? For a mortal purpose? — 
for the grave and annihilation ? Is this the explanation 
of temptation and sin ; the meaning of love and sorrow ; 
the use of education ; the worth of social affections ; the 
end of virtue ? Surely if spiritual existence is a false- 
hood life is a mystery. 



Human life, with its strange mutations and experiences, 
its melancholy and extatic realities, its shame and its glory, 
its broken resolutions and its undying hopes, its close 
clinging to the things of earth, and its gravitation to an 
unseen sphere, — what is it to the materialist but a satire 
and deceit ? 



The moment you see through all God's working, that 
moment his infinity is lost and he becomes finite. The 
very conception of God implies that he is a mysterious 
worker. 

11 



122 LIVINO WORDS. 

The stars that roll in glory for above us, and that 
have stood out so long upon the firmament, like figures 
on the dial of eternity, shall fade and disappear. But 
ice. who tremble at their greatness and thirst for their 
secrets, shall pass and live beyond them. Time has no 
mortgage on the human soul. 



"When one has performed a good act, made a noble 
sacrifice, resisted temptation, or broken up a bad habit, 
nature looks more pleasant and peaceful. It sheds, as it 
were, a benediction upon him in the sunshine, and whis- 
pers approval in the breeze. On the contrary, when he 
has committed any deed of shame he cannot look up un- 
rebuked to the calm blue sky or the majestic hills. 



It is a sublime thing — danger with courage — to see 
Socrates take the hemlock with that sublime philosophy 
of his. But what is that, compared with the words of 
Christ in the darkness of Gethsemane, — that imploring 
cry, " If it be thy will, let this cup pass from me ; never- 
theless, not my will, but thine be done " ? 






Anything that is deep enough to touch the conscience 
is too deep to carry Presidents into the chair. 



LIVING WOKDS. 123 

To stand up and speak God's truth, whether men will 
hear or whether they will forbear, when it crashes like 
thunder and lightning into cotton-bag Christianity and 
politics, — to be called fanatic, to be denounced as an agi- 
tator, when you speak God's simple truth from your own 
conviction, — that may cost a man something more than a 
decent acquiescence in mere morality. But that which 
Christ requires of us is to be, as well as to do, — to have 
in our hearts the spring of love, self-sacrifice, devotion to 
the right, adherence to God's will and God's truth. 



Events are only the shells of ideas ; and often it is the 
fluent thought of ages that is crystalized in a moment by 
the stroke of a pen or the point of a bayonet. 



We are conscious of something within ourselves which 
is not the body; — something that is more essential than 
the limbs and organs which it controls. We are conscious 
of thought, of affections, of creative power that moulds 
and uses the elements about us, — of a desire that reaches 
beyond the limits of this world. As to the fact of a 
spiritual existence, then, — of a principle of being involved 
in and acting beyond the form3 of sense, — we cannot 
reasonably doubt. 



124 LIVING WORDS. 

Love anything if you want to comprehend it. You 
Will never know your neighbor or your dearest friend 
until you love him. You will never know the nature 
which lies behind the outward aspect of things — the core 
of the great throbbing life of mystery covered up in every 
clover-bud and glistening in every star — until you love 
nature. You will never know God until you possess 
some of the unselfish love which Christ exhibited, and 
which he has kindled within us. Not by searching can 
we find out God, but by becoming can we find him out. 
Not by intellectual probes which seek to penetrate the 
mystery of the universe, not by our starry ladders climb- 
ing through a million cycles, not by our plummets sound- 
ing the infinite depths, not by our microscopes scanning 
the minutest forms of being, not by all these can we find 
out God. They are only the vestibule of the great tem- 
ple. They are only the threshold of the infinite resi- 
dence. But by loving we pass beyond all nature and get 
behind all forms, — go deeper than the life of the material 
world, and come into contact with the Infinite Mind and 
know him. 



At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that 
appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. 
Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face 
public opinion. 



LIVING WORDS. 125 

The moment we see that around all the darkness 
and uncertainty of this life, as around this dark, lower- 
ing, dim, misty morning arches the blue sky, so arches 
the love of God, and the brightness of his majesty breaks 
upon us, all becomes changed. It is the master-key to 
every riddle, the clue to every labyrinth, the one sure 
light to light us in our darkness. 



Every great fact of nature or society may be regarded 
as a parable, veiling yet suggesting spiritual realities, 
even as Jesus found the witnesses of his truth in the lilies 
that waved in the field, and in the fisherman casting his 
net into the sea. 



Nations, like individuals, exist for something beyond 
themselves. America is to do more than to develop its 
own magnificent resources, if it fulfils its legitimate des- 
tiny. It has a world's work to do. It has to achieve 
the practical unity of the human race by the elements of 
freedom, truth, and love. 



I know a good many people. I think, who are bigots, 
and who know they are bigots, and are sorry for it, but 
they dare not be anything else. 
IP 



126 LIVING WORDS. 

Whatever demoralizes the man and the citizen — 
-whatever violates the dictates of conscience, or lowers the 
standard of rectitude in his soul — inflicts a more danger- 
ous wound upon the Constitution and shakes the fabric 
of our nationality more than any open treason. Senators 
and statesmen do more damage to the public weal by 
moral disloyalty and depreciation of the eternal right than 
they do good by Buncome rhetoric and a delirium tremens 
of indignant patriotism. The basis of all public law is 
private virtue. The anchorage of our national Union is 
in personal rectitude and reverence. If it holds by any- 
thing more shallow than this it is unsafe ; and they who 
flout individual conscience and the moral law in the soul 
do violence to the strongest guarantees of all order and 
all law. 



He whose will flows serenely into history, and who 
gives the coral island time to grow, has spread out this 
vast continent in the waters, balancing the globe, for some 
great contribution to the general plan. If we are faithful 
to our principles, our intelligence, our freedom, our true 
development of humanity shall become the ligatures of 
the world. 



It is not the thing we do, but the spirit that we work 
in, that tests our moral and spiritual condition. 



1 



LIVING WORDS. 127 

Christianity is the true conserving and developing 
power of a nation. All time demonstrates this truth. 
What is the source of progress and safety to a people ? 
Let "the vocal earth," let the graves of buried nations, 
answer. One after another they have arisen, — they 
have built their towers of strength, and fortified their 
lofty walls, — they have opened their sources of wealth, 
and hardened their sinews of power ; and for what object ? 
For perpetuity and success. Go linger around the deso- 
late spot where stood Chaldea, — go question the fallen 
columns of Tadmor, — go seek the mystic pyramids of 
Egypt, — go ask the Acropolis or the Capitol ; — go 
speak to one or all of these, and they will tell you that 
the hearts which have withered to ashes beneath their 
ruins, that the minds which were their pride and their 
glory, that the hands which strengthened their power, 
were all moved by the great idea of adding to their 
prosperity and greatness, and perpetuating their station 
in the earth. Surely, then, here in this pillared past 
we may ascertain the source of a nation's prosperity 
and conservation ; at least we may ascertain what it is 
not. 

Is it wealth ? Where is Lydia ? Its inhabitants " pos- 
sessed a fertile territory and a profusion of silver." But 
its vast treasures were no walls of defence ; the riches of 
Gyges and Croesus were not its safeguards. It was 



128 LIVING WORDS. 

swept by the sword of Cyrus, trampled under foot by the 
victorious hordes of Persia. 

Has intellectual excellence alone secured perpetuity 
and progress to empire? Where is Greece? Its very 
soil is animate with mind, and its every pillar, like 
ancient Memnon, breathes music to the sun. Its mould- 
ering altars are garlanded with poetry, and eloquence and 
philosophy kindle amid its desolations. The home of 
Socrates and Plato, Demosthenes and Eschylus, Pericles 
and Homer, — what is it? Did its intellectual great- 
ness, its glorious poetry, its lofty philosophy, its burning 
eloquence, its glowing canvas, its life-like marble save it 
from the dust ? Did Spartan heroism gather around in 
the hour of peril ? Did Attic genius flash up from its 
altars, like guardian flame ? It w T ent down at last ; — 
the wave of desolation rolls over it. 

Can power insure prosperity and safety to a nation ? 
Where is ancient Rome? Where is the crowned and 
imperial city that sat upon her seven hills, and sent her 
armies through the earth? Her "eagle flag unrolled, 
and froze " by the icy streams of the north ; the bones of 
her legions covered the burning sands like drifting snow ; 
her triumphant shouts pealed up from the hills of Gaul 
and the chalky cliffs of Britain, and were answered by 
her hosts from far Jerusalem and Damascus. Over the 
face of the known world, you entered no walled city 



LIVING WORDS. 129 

where stood not a Roman sentinel, you passed no crowd 
in which was not heard the Latin tongue. Where is the 
proud city of the Capitol ? Where are the mailed hand 
and the kingly brow ? Did her power start forth from 
the tomb of Julius, did her ancient renown appear in the 
person of Augustus, when the eager hordes of Goth and 
Hun rushed upon her palaces, quenched the light on her 
altars, shattered her glorious marbles, and trampled with 
barbaric exultation on her purple pride ? Her very tomb 
is crumbling beneath the breath of time. 

I know that these references are trite ; yet would I 
urge you to seize upon the deep burden of their meaning, 
to feel their cogency. They demonstrate that wealth, 
knowledge, power, without a controling influence, — 
without a right motive for their direction, — are not the 
sources of conservation and true progress. 



The language that is becoming the master-speech of 
the world ; the language uttered by those new-born colo- 
nies that are blossoming around the globe ; the language 
that peak through speaking-trumpets on distant seas, — 
is the language of the Declaration of Independence ; and 
wherever the keels of our commerce cut their way there 
go the intelligence, the freedom, the inherent justice of 
the English tongue. 



130 LIVING WORDS. 

Take the first lino of the Declaration of Independency 
and drive it home to its logical conclusions with the beetle- 
weight of its moral force, and how many institutions 
among us would it split into kindling-wood, annihilate old 
msty forms of order, and go through tract societies as if 
they were pine stumps. 



That desolate place* on yonder shore is not only an 
impressive witness to Prophecy ; it is itself a prophet to 
other cities. Sitting there, with its head cowled by deso- 
lation, and its feet chafed by the sea, from its solemn lips 
there comes an appeal to London, Paris, New York, 
warning us that there is no stability in material greatness ; 
that corruption and luxury, however fortified by power, 
however swathed in splendor, cannot elude the relentless 
law ; but that now, as ever, God holds the world in his 
hands, and his eternal sanctions control it. 



We move too much in platoons ; we march by sections ; 
we do not liye in our vital individuality enough ; we are 
slaves to fashion, in mind and in heart, if not to our pas- 
sions and appetites. 



Site of Tyre. 



LIVING WORDS. 131 

Freedom does not radically consist in free maxims, in 
free institutions, but in free men. Those maxims, those 
institutions, may constitute conditions of freedom ; they 
may exist as the frame-work of its expression and its de- 
velopment, but they derive their significance and their 
value from the freedom of human minds and human souls. 
Alas ! we all know how, amid prevalent forms of democracy 
and sounding mottos of liberty, there may exist the veriest 
despotism and the most abject slavery, — base standards 
of action, blind party spirit, and rampant demagogueism. 
When such is the case, of what avail are technicalities of 
freedom and theories on parchment ? These are valuable 
only as they furnish conditions and inspirations of that 
liberty which consists in harmonious development and up- 
lifting of personal sentiments and faculties. Without 
this all such forms and signs of freedom are but fossil 
symbols, in which the spirit of past achievement is petri- 
fied, and which lie around us in the strata of tradition. 
A declaration of independence is not freedom ; a constitu- 
tion is not freedom; universal suffrage is not freedom. 
The right to elect our rulers or legislators, the right to 
worship according to the dictates of our conscience, — call 
you this freedom, when the elector smothers his conscience 
in his ballot, and the worshiper sacrifices his reason in his 
pew? 



The rebellion of atoms would be universal anarchy. 



132 LIVING WORDS. 

The great consequences of life depend upon the little 
things of the moment. How do you know what the least 
thing you do is pregnant with, and how much it may 
produce ? You tell a single lie, and how many lies that 
may set going. It may be the spark to explode a whole 
magazine of lies upon the community. Just that one lie 
you have told may set fire to a whole train of deceit, the 
evil consequences of w T hich no single man and no commu- 
nity can limit. Speak one kind word, and you do not 
know how far it may reach in its influence. A man comes 
down town in the morning, and all seems dark to him, 
either because his mind or his body is diseased, or some 
temporary irritability has roused him, or some sad news 
has fallen upon him ; he comes out, at any rate, with the 
conviction that all is dark with him, — that everything 
is unfortunate and wrong. He meets a friend who speaks 
one kind word to him, and then passes on ; and as the sun 
sends a ray of sunshine across the sky that was before dark 
and lowering, and changes the whole appearance of na- 
ture, that one kind word sends a ray of sunshine into 
his heart, and changes the whole world, and he does his 
work better all the day long in consequence of it. 



Truth is the root, but human sympathy is the flower 
of practical life. 



LIVING WORDS. 133 

Whether we truly enjoy any lot in life depends upon 
the disposition we carry into it. The kind of eyes with 
which we see, the kind of temper with which we act, will 
make much of little or little of much. 



Even plenty itself, the most profuse evidence of God, 
is often that which most shuts us in from him. In the 
blasted harvest and the unfruitful year, perhaps, we fall 
upon our knees, and think of his agency who retains the 
shower and veils the sun. But when the wheels of na- 
ture roll on their accustomed course, when our fields are 
covered with sheaves and our garners groan with abun- 
dance, we may lift a transient offering of gratitude ; yet 
in the continuous flow of prosperity are w T e not apt to re- 
fer largely to our own enterprise, and bless our " luck?" 



No community is so safe as that where God's attributes 
are sovereign in their essential unity, — a community 
strong with that justice which is the pillar, that mercy 
which is the glory of his throne. 



The glory of revealed religion is the fact that it con- 
firms the grandest truths of nature. Christ rested upon 
them as admitted propositions. 
12 



134 LIVING WORDS. 

A man can no more be a Christian without facing evil 
and conquering it than he can be a soldier without going 
to battle, facing the cannon's mouth, and encountering 
the enemy on the field* 



The prize of the Christian life ; what is it ? Do you 
think it is a heavenly crown, a golden harp, a white robe, 
a comfortable place in heaven, and then a limitation? 
No ; heaven is better than this, — a higher field of action 
everywhere, broader vision, sweeter and more glorious 
conceptions of God, and more of the excellence of Jesus 
Christ. 



No heart is so glued into its socket that it does not 
swim in a little sea of affection. 



How can we be forgiven unless we forgive ? How can 
we have our sin remitted, sent away, unless hatred, re- 
venge, selfishness the root of all sin, be removed from us ? 
Is not the one, by the inevitable nature of things, the 
measure of the other ? 



The more we become like God the more sure y do we 
recognize him, until, as the heart grows clear and calm, 
it reflects him like a mirror. 



LIVING WORDS. 135 

Peayek is natural. Every man has in him the ele- 
ments of religion ; folded up it may be in secularity and 
sin, unheeded and forgotten; yet at times — in some hour 
of silent thought, or some shock of Providence — respond- 
ing like a great deep to the highest realities of being ; to 
the mysteries of God and immortality, of life and death. 
! there is not one so hard, so reckless, drifted away so 
utterly from the current of humanity, as never to experi- 
ence blessed desires and more than earthly influences. 
There is not one who has not, at some period, felt the im- 
pulse and the necessity of prayer, and lifted up his cry to 
God as his helper. But the wonder is that these seasons 
are not more common, more habitual ; that, living as we 
do in contact with the infinite God, wrapped around by 
his almighty Spirit, we should not feel it more; that, 
considering the magnificence of the universe about us, — 
the varying loveliness of the day, the rolling splendors of 
the night, — we should not gladly seize our privilege to 
pass within the veil, and commune face to face with the 
Being who made it all ; that, throbbing with the conscious- 
ness of filial dependence, we should not lean upon the arm 
of our everlasting Father ; that, knowing our exposures, 
our follies, and our faults, we do not seek the succors of 
his Spirit and the shield of his protection ; that, with no 
intervening meditation, no sense of the invisible God, we 
should sink to the embrace of slumber, and leap into the 
morning light ; making our homes but inns of bodily re- 



136 LIVING WORDS. 

freshment, and all outside a mart of worldly care; as 
though life, embosomed as it is in wonder, breathing as it 
does with unseen influences, were but a flow of sensual 
interests, and " rounded with a sleep." 



No exclusive sphere bounds the highest privileges of 
religion. The qualifications for communion and intimacy 
with God do not inhere in those gifts which are the en- 
dowment, and too often the pride, of the few, but in the 
profound depths of that nature which is the inheritance 
of all. And when we see the proud philosopher denying 
the reality of religion, and cavilling at its truths, let not 
our faith be shaken ; for his vision, after all, is dim. He 
only reasons from what he perceives, and perceives only 
with the head ; while thousands, in the revelation of their 
own experience, know that which he repudiates. In the 
serenity of humble trust, in the transparent depths of 
sanctified affection, they see God. 



In its highest significance the material universe is not 
a collection of dry facts and rigid laws, — is not the un- 
rolling of a gorgeous epic or artistic masterpiece ; but it 
is a temple filled with God's presence, and declaring its 
final cause to be his manifestation and his praise. 



LIVING WORDS. 137 

In the course of history, those who have denied them- 
selves for truth and righteousness, those who have shed 
out their love like balm, those who have stood in their lot 
and meekly endured, begin to touch the hearts of men, 
and sway their souls. As ages roll on, the mere splendor 
of achievement fades, and the nature of the deed is re- 
garded. The tinsel of the conqueror drops off, and the 
grossness of his ambition, the blood-spots of violence, and 
the canker of selfishness appear. Yes, as ages roll on 
mankind begin to recognize their real benefactors and 
the true heroes. The sweat of productive toil comes to 
be esteemed more than princely blood ; and they who have 
made grass and corn to grow than they whose harvests 
of honor have sprung in the furrows of battle, and been 
reaped w T ith sickles of death. The world's actual mon- 
archs come up in the soiled garments of labor, with their 
hands on the printing-press and the plough. They draw 
near from the fields of exploration, whence they have 
plucked the trophies of discovery and touched the mag- 
netic pulses of human thought. They issue from low 
lanes of suffering, followed by the blessings of the poor, 
and they control the affections of the race with the sceptre 
of a healing mercy. They rise from the red dust of the 
amphitheatre, they leap from the martyr's fire, and go 
upward, with their unyielded truth, to shine as stars for- 
ever. So speaks the inevitable law of events, — " Fall 
12* 



138 LIVING WORDS. 

back, ye glorified Ciesars and Napoleons ! — ye possessors 
of a dead renown and of a material good ! Give place in 
honor, in power, in permanent dominion, to the patient, 
the loving, the faithful, the meek, and let them thus 
1 inherit the earth.' Above all, in the wreck of dynas- 
ties, of institutions of old violence and cruel wrong., come 
Thou who didst not strive nor cry, — w T ho clidst not break 
the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax ! Come, 
pierced and gentle One, stained not with the blood of 
others, but with thine own, and ascend to universal do- 



minion 



f *' 



Sincere desire after God, and actual communion with 
him, constitute the real life of religion. 



That which evinces the personal grandeur of Christ is 
not so much the gospel he gave as the spirit of the times 
which have succeeded him. 



The thought of God is as a chastening cloud, to qual- 
ify the dazzling temptations of prosperity ; and in all the 
night-time of sorrow, and through the dark valley, his 
presence is a pillar of fire. 



LIVING WORDS. 139 

God is spirit, and therefore can be discerned by our 
spiritual nature only. He is moral, and so can be known 
only by moral affinities. He is love, and is to be appre- 
hended by deep and right affections. Therefore the pure 
in heart, and they alone, see him, — of course, not with 
any outward, palpable vision, for thus is he apparent to 
none, but with that true seeing which consists in intimate 
knowledge and interior apprehension. As he who has 
something of genius in himself enters into the spirit of 
genius, and therefore most truly sees or apprehends it, — 
as we see our friend, by intense sympathy, by a similarity 
or a correspondence of quality on our own part, — so the 

pure in heart see God Sense alone, intellect alone, 

cannot discern him. We must exercise those affections, 
those religious faculties of our being, which, forever un- , 
folding, will, throughout eternal ages, bring us nearer and 
nearer to him. We must cherish that love and that faith 
which will render this life sacred and blessed. Then, 
even here, we shall always stand in his presence. Then, 
everywhere within the scope of the sanctified earth and 
the condescending heavens we shall see God. 



When Christianity appeared, the clouds which hovered 
over the spirit of Socrates and drifted before Plato's vision 
broke into a constellation of sweet and awful truths. 



140 LIVING WORDS. 

It takes something of a poet to apprehend and get into 
the depth, the lusciousness, the spiritual life of a great 
poem. And so we must be in some way like God in 
order that we may see God as he is. 



The prime object of Christianity was 3 not to gratify 
the curiosity of man, but to attract and sanctify his affec- 
tions ; not to exercise his mere reasoning faculties, and 
multiply the data of his scientific knowledge, but to en- 
rich his soul with love and faith. It came not to solve 
problems in metaphysics, but mysteries in life; not to 
give sharply-defined revelations, but to clarify the interior 
vision and heave up the whole spiritual ground-work. It 
came not as a mere philosophy, to propound and instruct, 
but as a religion, to regenerate, to brood over the solemn 
depths and chaotic elements of our nature, until it should 
emerge in a new creation of harmony and joy, glowing 
with divine beauty and pregnant with holiness. And 
while it is in harmony with the grandest action of the 
intellect — while in order to accomplish its result it makes 
use of the intellect, and by that result the intellect itself 
is quickened and enlarged — the main point of its effort is 
this moral centre, this lever of the soul, this throne and 
gateway of the powers of life, thronged with motives, sen- 
tinelled by passions, and too often polluted by sensuality 
and sin — the heart. 



LIVING WORDS. 141 

Reason about it as we may, there stands the ineffaceable 
fact in the annals of the world, as distinctly marked upon 
the face of the earth as the geological epochs are marked 
beneath its surface, of a general shifting of thought and ten- 
dency, — a starting forward of humanity by a sudden im- 
pulse, — a setting in of a fresh current, — a voice speaking 
far behind the oracle, — a strange, glorious, shimmering 
fire above the statue, — the crystalization of new ideas 
around the abutments of the old past ; until at last, when 
the old inherent vestiges of antiquity crumbled away, there 
appeared a youthful civilization more glorious and more 
vigorous than the old ever was, even in its prime. That 
is simply the alphabet of history. It is a statement of 
mere facts, account for it as we will. As Christians, we 
explain this extraordinary revelation by the fact that pre- 
cisely upon the boundary-line between that ancient and 
modern history we detect the advent of the Gospel. We 
maintain the correspondence of these results to the im- 
pulse which appears in the life and teachings of Jesus 
Christ. 



Christ could not have been our exemplar by despising 
sorrow, — by treating it with contempt; but only by 
shrinking from its pain, and becoming intimate with its 
anguish, — only as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief." 



142 LIVING WORDS. 

As we can only account for the centrifugal force of our 
planet by referring it to the primitive impulse imparted 
direct from the hand of God, so can we account for the 
phenomena of Christian civilization, and Christian influ- 
ence in the world, only by attributing the first movement 
to the personal action of Jesus Christ. 



What we can do, now that Christianity has been illus- 
trated for us, is not to be confounded with what we might 
have done had we never received that illustration. Criti- 
cism performs but a sorry task, when it overlooks the im- 
portance of Christ's agency, and speculates upon the 
capacity of other light than his. It works in an ungener- 
ous as well as to ungrateful spirit. It sees by the in- 
struments which he furnished, and then boasts its own 
powers of vision. The great doctrines which Jesus ex- 
hibited — those orbs of truth, and love, and holiness — 
the philosophic critic reduces to their primal elements, 
and then boasts how he, too, could discover and construct. 
As well say that in the nebulous womb of matter you can 
find every bone and artery of a planet, and draw hence 
the structure of a harmonious and perfect world. 



It is not simply retribution for sin, but the consequences 
of the nature of sin, that it separates us from God. 



LIVING WORDS. 143 

Before the advent of Jesus, something was needed by 
humanity, and sought for, which it could not obtain itsel£ 
It is this desire, this want, that sighs wistfully from the 
great heart of heathenism. It is this that heaves up in 
broken longings from among the symbols of a declining 
worship. It is this that clouds with dissatisfaction the 
glory of the oracle, and strips the veil from the beautiful 
deceits of mythology. It is this that breathes in snatches 
of fragmentary music, wandering as if in search of the 
full harmony. It was because of this that philosophy 
struggled but could not attain, and the wisest intellects 
groped among strange splendors and awful shadows. It 
was this that made the world look, at the time Christ 
came, like a world in eclipse, an exhausted world, a world 
of orphanage. He filled a great want, which until then 
was unsatisfied. He realized an ideal, which until then 
was incomplete. He imparted a power to the soul, which 
until then it did not possess. And there is no reason for 
maintaining that the experience of the past would not be 
the experience of the present, if Christianity had not ap- 
peared. 



It is the veiled angel of sorrow who plucks away one 
thing and another that bound us here in ease and se- 
curity, and, in the vanishing of these dear objects, indi- 
cates the true home of our affections and our peace. 



144 LIVING WORDS. 

The power by which Christ wrought in the world is 
something more than the power of moral precepts. He 
uttered truth in such a way that it went into the souls of 
men. It flashed upoi/them with the sanction of eternity. 
It caused the great idea of duty to rise above the narrow 
and temporary sanctions of the hour, and to be connected 
with the idea of God and immortality. 



Christianity was, Christianity is, a system of life 
communicated from God to the soul of man, embodied in 
Jesus Christ, who is himself the essential revelation, — who 
inspires each truth, forces home each moral precept, and 
with his own personality affirms the miracles. This is 
the principle which, when poured into the hearts of men, 
caused them to feel that Jesus spake as never man spake. 
This shifted the very level of their nature, and opened 
heights of divine reality which they had never known be- 
fore. This gave them sublime vision. This transfigured 
their personality so that peasants became apostles, weak 
ones heroes, and lowly ones stood up undaunted before 
priests and kings. It flashed upon atheistic senses a rev- 
elation of God, new thoughts and convictions burning into 
the soul. It tore away the veil from the grave. It re- 
duced and diminished earthly things, and it expanded 
heaven. 



LIVING WORDS. 145 

It is the wonder of almost every word of the New Tes- 
tament that it carries live truth, just as a live coal carries 
fire, and carries this truth through all ages and all times ; 
that it is just as applicable to one man in his condition as 
to another man in a very different condition, — to the man 
in the nineteenth century as to the man in the first cen- 
tury. 



Take away the personal Christ from the gospels, leav- 
ing the same precepts and doctrines, and the whole aspect 
of Christianity would change, as the aspect of the earth 
changes when the sun goes down. The same eternal 
mountains lift their heads to heaven ; the same rivers flow 
onward. But their animation is gone ; they are cold, and 
gray, and dark. Thus would Christianity be without 
that central personage, around which all its glories clus- 
ter, — from which they stream. 



It is not said " Blessed are they that mourn, because 
they mourn, but because they shall be comforted. 
Mourning is consecrated as leading to higher and pro- 
founder joy. And in the general spirit of true religion 
we find no encouragement for fixed melancholy or ascetic- 
ism, but a disposition which throws over life and the uni- 
verse a tempered yet serene and cheering light. 
13 



14:6 LIVING WORDS. 

To-day the Christian world presents the spectacle 
of a grand and glorious unity. The most diverse 
forms of faith and ceremony, gliding in opposite spheres 
of thought, and moving in the most eccentric orbits of 
opinion, are illuminated with the glory of one great 
event, and gravitate to a common centre. The church- 
bells of innumerable sects are all chime-bells, to-day, 
ringing in sweet accordance throughout many lands, 
and awaking a great joy in the heart of our common 
humanity. The hard, cold winter season grows genial, 
as though the world in its frosty veins felt the warmer 
quickening of that glad mysterious hour when . the 
infant Christ was borne upon its bosom. His advent 
reflects its gladness and its glory upon the hour. It 
is a time for the sympathies of a common faith, for the 
feeling of a common humanity ; it is a time for sectarian 
differences to melt away in these grand fundamentals, 
upon which the broadest church confessedly stands. 
Nay, even international asperities may grow calm upon 
this beautiful Christmas Sabbath,^ and this political 
storm, so harshly rising, may lull for the while, and give 
place to the sweet, soothing zephyrs playing alike through 
the forests of Maine and the pines of Carolina, and pro- 
claiming a union stronger than constitutional compacts, 
and broader than national lines. 

* 1859. 



LIVING WOEBS. 147 

There is but a slight difference between the man who 
may be said to know nothing and him who thinks he 
knows everything. 



What mean the discipline and trial of life? What 
mean the dark shocks of disappointment, the breaking of 
hopes, the sundering of human ties, the terrible baptism 
of suffering and of fire, if there is not something beyond ? 
If in every bath of sweat and tears, every drop of sorrow, 
every falling wave, there is something by which I am led 
more near to God, by which my soul is made stronger 
and purified, then I can understand life. But if I am 
hurled in the chaos of life, — battered by sorrow to-day, 
and kicked by misfortune to-morrow, — stricken by my 
.fondest hopes, deluded and deceived, and all is to end in 
nothingness, I must confess that you present a problem I 
cannot solve. 



He who cannot retire within himself, and find his best 
resources there, is fitted, perhaps, for the smoother pas- 
sages of life, but poorly prepared for all life. He who 
cannot and dare not turn away from outward engrossments, 
and be in spiritual solitude, who is afraid or sickens at the 
idea of being alone, has a brittle possession in all that 
happiness which comes from the whirl, and dance, and sur- 
face of things. One hour may scatter it forever. 



14S LIVING WORDS. 

There is efficacy in disappointment or adversity, when 
it occurs as a foil to our plans ; when it breaks in upon 
the tenor of our days as a counter experience ; when it 
darkens the summer sky of life with the suggestion of 
higher and profounder realities ; when the soul is loosened 
from its fancied security in earthly good, and sent in 
search of substantial rest; and the glittering forms of 
things that seemed so compact and solid at the going down 
of the sun, as they stand up in relief amidst the infinite 
spaces of being and the night-like glories of eternity, fade 
and look empty. And it is in trial — it is in poverty, 
pain, and persecution — that the strength of the human 
spirit is tested, and its energies summoned forth, as all 
our physical power is challenged when thrown among the 
crests and hollows of the sea ; and one strikes out with a 
bold vigor when thus overwhelmed who before could not 
swim a stroke. Often a great sorrow rushing over the 
soul like a freshet has swept away its upper-soil, and laid 
bare unsuspected treasures. Thus has adversity stung 
the sluggish man to enterprise. Thus has obloquy roused 
the timid to courage. Thus has the uncouth nature grown 
beautiful with sympathy and fidelity? Thus has woman 
risen from her drooping reliance to a heroic strength, and 
covered her breast with a mailed fortitude. The brilliant 
beauty that only kindled passion has been transcended by 
a loveliness shining out from her deeper nature in linea- 
ments of patience, fidelity, and affection. That which 



LIVING WORDS. 149 

flickered only as a coquettish light in the saloon and the 
boudoir steadies itself into a pure and holy flame, — a 
taper for the sick-bed vigil, a lamp for the dungeon's 
gloom. 

So in sorrow and in suffering are hidden the springs of 
a peace and a power that can be affected by no outward 
storms. It is a great thing, when one has grown strong 
through that trial which melts away the dross and proves 
the true gold ; when, being driven to the handling of 
many expedients, he has been trained to detect all coun- 
terfeit comforts, and to discriminate between unsubstantial 
good and that which abides every test; when he has 
learned to dispense with all outward props, can let riches, 
honors, health drop away from him, and yet feel that all 
this does not touch his real life ; w x hile above these coils 
of uncertainty and mutation he lifts his naked person- 
ality erect in its own spiritual resources. Surely, pros- 
perity has never generated such depths of power, such 
intrinsic and full consolation. 



The great test which proves the excellence of the 
religion of Christ is its adaptation to man in solitude; 
because it is then fehat he is thrown upon the re- 
sources of his own soul, — upon his inner and everlasting 
life. 

13* 



150 LIVING WORDS. 

Sorrow as illustrated in Christ's life, and as inter- 
preted in his scheme of religion, has assumed a new 
aspect, and yields a new meaning. Its garments of 
heaviness have become transfigured to robes of light, its 
crown of thorns to a diadem of glory ; and often for some 
one whom the rich and joyful of this world pity, — some 
suffering, struggling, overshadowed soul, — comes there a 
voice from heaven, " This is my beloved son, in whom I 
am well pleased." 



Christianity is revealed to us in the form that walked 
the streets of Jerusalem and the shores of the Galilean 
lake ; that bent over the sick couch and the bier ; mingled 
in the festival of Cana, and reclined at the Last Supper ; 
stood in serene dignity before the judgment-seat of Pilate, 
and bore a cross up the way of sorrow ; and hung and 
prayed upon the accursed wood, and came forth radiant 
from the sleep of death and the broken chambers of the 
sepulchre. 



When men, instead of being anchored by the head, 
drift by the heart, we may believe that they are moved 
by some deep current of religious feeling, which is better 
than a shallow surface of conformity or a dead calm of 
acquiescence. 



LIVING WORDS. 151 

If one's conscience be dead as a stone it is as heavy 
too. In such a case there would be a consciousness of 
being unconscious, — a sense of life in death. 



A perjured spirit continually feels its false oath 
hurled back upon it from heaven ; fraud spoils the taste 
of luxury, and makes ill-gotten wealth a cankering chain ; 
murder always hears its brother's blood crying from the 
ground, making the crowd more solitary than a wilderness, 
and the desert more populous than a city, while sometimes 
that pale face hangs in the sunniest prospects by day, and 
that awful memory breeds a fountain of stark and ghastly 
dreams by night. These men, all unwhipped of human 
justice as they may be, in the heavy consciousness of sin 
hear thunders more deep than the sentence of its judg- 
ment-seat, and are girt with a burning cincture more ter- 
rible than its punishment. 



The great cheat and delusion set before every genera- 
tion is simply this tradition, that there is anything like 
real substantial pleasure in sin. 



I do not know a more dreadful thing than at a time of 
trouble going out and calling in God as a stranger. 



152 LIVING WORDS, 

Religion is rich with glad influences ; for it is a prin- 
ciple infinitely varied, — it presides over the different 
phases of human life, and sanctions and hallows them all. 
Religion forbids folly, forbids excess, forbids an empty, 
frivolous living, — and who wishes to live so ? Religion 
bids us have a time for all things, and wisely live for a 
higher and purer destiny than any of this earth. It bids 
us not be profane, or indolent, or licentious, or wasteful. 
"Who wishes to be so ? But it does not strip us of one 
true joy : — it forbids not one innocent amusement. 



A community wrapped up in secularity and sin, with 
all its gay variety and all its bustle, regarded by a vision 
of spiritual discernment, seems dead and desolate. Yes, 
those diligent forms appear as lifeless as the embalmed 
nations who people the catacombs of Thebes ; and the ap- 
peals of religion, the incentives to higher life, the moving 
presence of God, is as unfelt amid this waste of worldli- 
ness as the wind that sighs over the unconscious sands of 
the desert. 



There must be something beyond man in this world. 
Even on attaining to his highest possibilities, he is like a 
bird beating against his cage. There is something be- 
yond, deathless soul, like a sea-shell, moaning for the 
bosom of the ocean to which you belong ! 



LIVING WORDS. 153 

We have a moral authentication of God in our own 
souls, answering to the image that comes to us in Jesus 
Christ. 



Christianity gives us no hint that evil is only ap- 
j)arent, — the reverse side of a fact the obverse of which is 
good, — the unsubstantial shadow of a blessed purpose, 
hideous to our limited vision, but beautiful in the all-com- 
prehending sight of God. This idea, therefore, at the 
strongest, is but a surmise, and, as I think, it is not a rea- 
sonable surmise. I cannot believe there is any such ob- 
lique puzzle in the universe as that sin is one thing to 
man, and another in the sight of God ; that as it revolves 
through the depths of our consciousness it is wrong, but 
as it turns in the light of hi3 omniscience it is right. 



Touch a man's heart, and you lay hold of the helm 
that steers him ; you reach a power that lies deeper than 
appearances, and behind reason. Thence proceed the 
shapings of circumstance, the interpretations of outward 
existence, and the interior scenery of the soul; for "out 
of the heart are the issues of life." 



A lie is black, whiten it as you will. 



154 LIVING WORDS. 

How and what is that power that works in the shooting 
of a crystal, and binds the obedience of a star ; that shim- 
mers in the northern aurora, and connects by its attrac- 
tions the aggregated universe ; that by its unseen forces 
holds the little compass to the north, blooms in the nebula 
and the flower, weaves the garment of earth and the veil 
of heaven, darts out in lightning, spins the calm motion of 
the planets, and presides mysteriously over all motion and 
all life ? And what is life, and what is death, and what 
a thousand things that we touch, and experience, and 
think we know all about ? ! as science and nature 
open upon us, we find mystery after mystery, and the 
demand upon the human soul is for faith, — faith in high, 
yea, in spiritual realities ; and this materialism that would 
shut us in to death and sense, that denies all spirit and all 
miracle, is shattered like a crystal sphere, and the soul 
rushes out into wide orbits and infinite revolutions, — into 
life, and light, and power, that are of eternity, that are 
of God ! 



The alphabet, to the little child, is as the nebula to the 
philosopher. They both answer the great end of stimu- 
lating curiosity ; and when the soul penetrates one secret 
it passes with additional power to the solution of a higher, 
— all the while receiving into itself a golden residuum, a 
permanent virtue, which is the best and final result. 



LIVING WORDS. 155 

The mere a priori assertion of impossibility, by a little 
creature who with all hi3 philosophy cannot look much 
beyond the planet Jupiter, and who with all his sounding 
lines cannot reach the centre of the earth, that God 
Almighty, who spins these burning wheels at night, could 
not, w T ith all his wisdom and power, heal the sick and 
raise the dead, would be simply ludicrous, if it did not in 
fact produce such serious scepticism. 



He who will be serious in the work of spiritual disci- 
pline, who will act from a vital law of duty, must endure 
struggles and conflicts than which there is nothing more 
solemn under the sun. 



John Hancock, when the Council met in Boston, in 
the stormy days of the Revolution, and talked of letting 
the British into the city, though he owned, probably, more 
property than any other man in Boston, said, "Burn 
Boston, and make John Hancock a beggar, if the public 
good requires it" We like to hear such things ; but why 
don't men say, " Burn the richest treasure I have got, if 
it corrupts my soul. Bum down the pinnacles of my 
pride, my worldly interest, if they stand in the way of 
my attainment, and fulfilment of the great pattern which 
has been shown me in the mount ? JJ 



156 LIVING WORDS. 

God, spirit, immortality, instead of being inconsistent 
with what we know, are what we might most legitimately 
deduce from it, — what we might expect from the light 
that trembles behind that curtain of mystery which bounds 
all our sensuous knowledge. 



Mysteries are all about us, but faith sees light beyond 
and around them all. Have you recently laid down the 
dead in their place of rest ? Cold and crushing, then, is 
that feeling of vacancy, that dreary sense of loss, that 
rushes upon you, as you look through the desolate cham- 
bers without, through the desolate chambers of the heart 
within. But will not He who calls out from the very 
dust where your sleepers lie the flowers of summer, and 
who in the snows that enwrap their bed cherishes the 
germs of the glorious spring-time, — will not He who 
works out this beautiful mystery in nature bring life from 
the tomb and light out of darkness ? 



There is a spiritual region in and above the nature 
of every man, where belong the primal patterns of 
things, whence come the strongest inspirations, and which 
more or less completely casts the mould of our conduct 
and character. 



LIVING WORDS. 157 

All natural results are spontaneous. The diamond 
sparkles without effort, and the flowers open impulsively 
beneath the summer rain. And true religion is a spon- 
taneous thing, — as natural as it is to weep, to love, or to 
rejoice. No stiff, cumbrous, artificial form can be substi- 
tuted for it. The soul that possesses it breathes it out in 
good words and good deeds from a natural impulse. It 
rises to God in devotion, it flows out to man in kindness, 
as naturally as the dew-drop rises to the sun, or the river 
rushes to the sea. It acts not from mere interest or fear. 
It is seraphic exaltation of being, throbbing in harmony 
with the will of God, from which right action follows as a 
matter of course. As God does good because he is good, 
so does the truly religious soul. 



He who trusts in the word of God knows that he will 
find nothing in the material universe but the will of God. 



Think for a moment of the great agents and engines 
of our civilization, and then think what shadowy ideas 
they all once were. The wheels of the steamship turned 
as swiftly as they do now, but as silent and unsubstantial 
as the motions of the inventor's thought ; and in the noise- 
less loom of his meditation w T ere woven the sinews of the 
printing-press, whose thunder shakes the world. 
14 



158 LIVING WORDS. 

What a power has the mind evinced in astronomy ! Its 
vision extends into future ages, before which the years of 
the earth dwindle to nothing, Its calculations are prophe- 
cies. It makes a chronometer of the sun, an index of the 
comet, It sets the long marches of eternity to the chime 
of the morning stars. What is this power ? Does it per- 
ish with the body that engirts it ? .... It cannot be. 
Mind is deathless. 



Is it possible that man, who has been led forward from 
age to age through a splendid succession of achievements, 
until he has transformed this material world and made it 
an instrument of power,— strung the lightnings and made 
it work for him, — rode on wheels of thunder, with ban- 
ners of flame ; — is it possible that man, working upward 
from thi3 ideal, is simply a clod upon the earth ? The 
moment you think of this power to control and master 
material things you fall back upon the consciousness that 
you have a soul, and that there is more evidence than you 
have supposed of its existence. In fact there is more 
proof of a soul than of a body. When a man asks me 
what proof I have of a soul, I reply by asking him, What 
proof have you of a body ? You have more logical diffi- 
culty to prove an outward world than a soul. Spiritual 
consciousness, mounting aspiration, ideal influences have 
controlled you all through life. 



LIVING WORDS. 159 

If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — the worthies of old 
— cluster on the heavenly hills ; if Moses wears a glory 
more celestial than that which he bore from the awful 
mount ; if Elijah is clothed with a radiance brighter than 
the wheels of his fiery chariot; if Stephen's face still 
shines like an angel's, but is mingled now with no hue of 
death ; if all these are existent yet — because God is not a 
God of the dead, but of the living — let us feel that even 
the least find a home somewhere in the hospitable uni- 
verse, and in the sustaining omnipresence of the Father. 



The eye would be useless in total darkness, and the 
light would be insignificant if it struck upon a sightless 
world. There is more expressive evidence of design, then, 
in the reciprocal fitness than in the intrinsic arrangements 
of each. 



There is no night in heaven, — shall endless night 
brood over any part of this great universe ? ! will it 
not be that in the end there shall be no night at all ? — 
no night for us, — no night for those we love, — the wan- 
dering and the lost ? How bright is such an anticipation ! 
From every world that rolls sweet music gushing out, — 
on every crystal wall white robes and starry crowns ; and 
over every radiant isle and every glassy sea — over all the 
boundless universe — no night ! 



160 LIVING WORDS. 

Men constitute eras. Washington himself was the 
embodiment of the Revolution, and may fitly personate to 
other men and other ages the principles of that movement. 
But let not even the greatness of Washington overshadow 
the merits of the least of those who labored and sacrificed in 
that early struggle. They come up before us to-day from 
many a battle-ground, from many a post of duty ; from 
the perilous enterprise and the lonely night-watch ! The 
pageant of this hour sinks from my sight. This temple 
of industry,* with all its symbols of civilization, dissolves 
into thin air. These tokens of a great and prosperous 
people pass away. This magnificent city dwindles to a 
provincial town. I am standing now upon some village- 
green, on an early summer morning, when the dew is on 
the grass, and the sun just tips the hills. I see before me 
a little band clothed in the garb that is now so venerable. 
There are the cocked-hat, the continental coat, the well- 
worn musket. They have turned away from their homes ; 
they have turned from the fields of their toil ; they have 
heard the great call of freedom and of duty, and before 
God and man they are ready. Hark ! it is the tap of a 
drum, and they move forward to the momentous issue. 
That drum-beat echoes around the world ! That move- 
ment was the march of an irresistible idea, — the idea of 

* Crystal Palace, July 4th. 



LIVING WORDS. 161 

the spiritual worth and the inalienable rights of every 
man, out of which grow the stability of the nation and 
the unity of the world. 



We cannot consider nature as meant merely for secu- 
lar uses. It contains something that we cannot wholly 
employ in eating, or sleeping, or travelling, or making 
money. We can wield the sunbeam and harness the 
lightning; but there are powers, sights, and sounds in 
the glorious world about us which we cannot break into 
our daily work, or bend to our sensuous necessities. Nor 
is nature fully explained in scientific statements. All 
its expression is not exhausted upon the intellect. It 
fulfils a higher office than that of teaching us geometry, 
or astronomy, or geology. These truths themselves have 
an end higher than their scientific significance. Nature 
teaches us religious truth, it enriches us with larger 
spiritual life, it kindles in us the fire of devotion, it ex- 
alts us to the idea of immortality, it draws us into com- 
munion with God. 



I think it would be easier to toss a Pope's bull into the 
fire, to face a whole diet, to steer a ship into wide soli- 
tudes, than it is to do the little work or duty which 
presses every moment upon the will, and the pressure of 
which no eye recognizes but that of God. 
14* 



162 LIVING WORDS. 

The cross of Christ ! There centre our hopes, there 
die our fears, there fall our sins, there gushes our peni- 
tence, there beams the light of blessed assurance upon our 
tears. 



Religion is the most substantial thing in the world; 
it can take more hard knocks than anything else. Geol- 
ogy has jammed great boulders against it, and it is not 
even scratched ; astronomy has assailed it, yet amid the 
bright spheres of heaven it lifts its glorious head. It has 
stood all the wear and tear of all sciences and all discus- 
sion; it is the most substantial thing you can think of; it 
is the most robust thing in existence. Do not think you 
can hurt it by taking it into your work-shop. Let it out 
of your close pocket ; it will suffer there. The only thing 
that religion dreads is lack of room, lack of freedom, lack 
of breath. Take it out of your pocket and bring it into 
everything. Do not fear that it will desecrate religion to 
bring it in contact with the world. It will consecrate the 
world ; it will consecrate every deed and every act, and 
make them glorious. 



Christ has triumphed over sin, and sorrow, and 
death. Crown him with thorns, then ! — they are the 
fittest emblems of those evils which he has made his 
trophies. 



LIVING WORDS. 163 

Music, sculpture, poetry, painting, — these are glorious 
works ; but the soul that creates them is more glorious 
than they. The music shall die on the passing wind, 
the poem may be lost in the confusion of tongues, the 
marble will crumble and the canvas will fade, while the 
soul shall be quenchless and strong, filled with a nobler 
melody, kindling with loftier themes, projecting images 
of unearthly beauty, and drinking from springs of im- 
perishable life. 



Should the world be shattered upon its golden axle, 
we cannot get beyond the mercy and the compassion 
of God. Should this crystal habitation dissolve, God's 
nature will remain the same. 



The stars are beautiful ; many and deep 
Are the wonderful mysteries that they keep. 
Through the out-spread space they shine and roll. 
Like solemn thoughts o'er a prophet's soul. 
They speak of peace to heart-strings crushed ; 
Faith looks to them and its doubts are hushed ; 
They glide and they shine to the spirit's eye 
As things untarnished, and bright, and high ; 
And it yearneth and hopeth from them to soar 
When it looks through these fleshly bars no more. 



164 LIVING WORDS. 

Genius holds its universal dominion because it touches 
the deepest suggestions and utters the multiform experi- 
ences of a common nature. 



Christ is the essence of all law, and when we have his 
spirit there is no trouble about the penalties of the law. 



Let science extend the domain of actual knowledge, 
and lay bare as it may the secrets of the material world. 
It only exposes more and more the proportions of the 
great cathedral, and shows us the lamps of God's glory, 
and the infinite recesses of his love. It only wafts us on 
through the ever-rolling harmonies of the universe, until 
we pause before that awful veil of mystery in which he 
hides the essence of his being and the counsels of his 
thought. 



Death is not an end, but a transition-crisis. All the 
forms of decay are but masks of regeneration, — the 
secret alembics of vitality. 



Every duty is great ; great, because it tries our prin- 
ciple ; great, because for the time being it tries our loyalty 
to conscience, and our energy and will. 



LIVING WORDS. 165 

The sacred rights of citizenship belong to every man 
not because of the height of his station or the weight of 
his purse, but by virtue of his intrinsic manhood. 



What is it we need to preach but this : that for you, 
afar off, cast away, alienated, bruised, scarred by your 
sins, God is a father? For it is an eternal fact, not 
a shifting relation, not a relationship created by your 
faith or obedience, but an eternal fact revealed through 
Jesus Christ. We are like passengers in a tempestuous 
gale. Every object we trusted is shifting before our eyes, 
and sometimes the waters surge over our souls. We need 
something to take hold of that shall be fixed and firm 
when the world reels and our hearts grow faint. What 
is that but the assurance of this truth declared by Him 
who came from the bosom of the Father to' make it 
known ? 



A great many men — some comparatively small men 
now — if put in the right position, would be Luthers and 
Columbuses. 



The desire of man in all ages for God — the longing 
and seeking after God — is proof of the reasonableness 
of sgne kind of revelation of God to man. 



16G LIVING WORDS. 

When I go with Christ to Calvary and hear his dying 
prayer, his mighty yielding up of the ghost, I am con- 
strained to say, " Truly, this was the Son of God." And 
when I tread with him the rocky pavement of the sepul- 
chre, and feel the thrill of his rising, and hear the rush 
of angels' wings go by me, and he stands upon his grave- 
clothes, not all the light that breaks through the unsealed 
tomb can dissipate my awe. But when I pause with him 
before Jerusalem, and see his full, fast tears, and hear 
him weep by the grave of Lazarus, I feel that he was a 
tender, loving being, sympathizing with humanity, and 
know it is the " Son of Man " whom I am called to 
love. 



Could the universe be seen in its fulness, it would 
not contradict the perfect fabric of the gospel. No 
light from any reservoir of creation shall eclipse the 
radiance of the Cross, but will make it stand out in 
more glorious relief, and crown it with a diviner lustre. 



Well will it be for us if, witnessing the greatness of 
the work that God has wrought without us, we realize 
the greatness of the work that Christ accomplishes within 
us, and feel that we carry in our own souls the sublimest 
creation of the Eternal, a universe more permanent and 
precious than worlds 



LIVING WORDS. 167 

The soul which fathoms every league of the celestial 
arc, — knows, as a mariner the sea, the distant latitudes 
where comets flame, and worlds career, and constellations 
shake their awful clusters, — wanders amid the spectral 
nebula, and makes suns and systems to be but glittering 
beads upon the aspiring thread of its induction, cannot 
perish. There is a future life. In a universe so spheri- 
cal and whole as this, reason argues that its own incom- 
pleteness and capacity for more are suggestive, — are 
prophetical. Under-shadows and cross-lights of mystery, 
these filmy depths of present being, shudder in sympathy 
with something beyond. 



Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires 
one with the desire to seem rather than to be. 



The beast is to-day as he was in the herds of the Chal- 
dean and the Jew. The ant, though it teaches us with 
the same rebuke as in the days of Solomon, knows no 
more, does no more. The bird of the air beats the same 
trackless path, directed by the all-guiding hand. But 
to man God has appointed a different destiny, and made 
him peculiar by the gift of an inspiration, compared with 
which the glories of the outward universe are dim and 
perishable. 



168 LIVING WORDS. 

TnE fact which startles and contradicts the faith of one 
man will fall into beautiful harmony with the convictions 
of another, because of his wider and profounder per- 
ception. 



The origin of evil may puzzle us — its use no Chris- 
tian can deny When we take the Christian view 

of life we discover that not happiness merely, but virtue, 
holiness, is the great end of man; though happiness 
comes in as an inevitable consequence and accompaniment 
of this result. And in the light reflected from this view 
evil assumes a powerful, and I may say a most beautiful 
office. It is just as necessary for the attainment of virtue 
as prosperity or any blessing. Nay, in this aspect it is 
itself a great blessing, and 

" Every cloud that spreads above, 
And veileth love, itself is love." 

It is evident that without the contact of sin and the 
pressure of temptation there might be innocence, but not 
virtue. Equally evident does it seem that without an 
acquaintance with grief there would be but little of that 
uplifting tendency, that softening of the heart, and sanc- 
tifying of the affections which fit us for the dissolution of 
our earthly ties, and for the communions of the spiritual 
world. 



LIVING WORDS. 169 

It is a striking truth that while the intellect has 
cavilled and rejected, no one ever approached the gospel 
from the moral side who did not find it satisfactory, and 
instantly, though increasingly, apprehend its impregnable 
evidences. 



From the background of pain and sorrow often break 
out the noblest and most winning manifestations of 
humanity. The depth of human sympathy, the wealth 
of its love, is displayed in scenes of tribulation and need. 
The robes of charity show their whiteness amid the gloom 
of poverty and distress. Christ-like patience is born of 
suffering, the soul shines out in its essential splendor 
through the medium of bodily anguish, and faith trims 
her lamp in the shadow of the grave. Shall we call this 
existence a trivial thing, whose very miseries are the oc- 
casions of the noblest triumphs, whose trials may be con- 
verted into divine strength, whose tears may change into 
celestial dew, and nourish flowers of immortal hope ? 



Nature is incomplete in its expression without Chris- 
tianity. The revelations of the material universe melt 
into shadow, and a nebula of mystery hangs around them 
all. They suggest more than they can answer. Chris- 
tianity fulfils that " elder Scripture. ?; It is the Apoca- 
lypse to its Genesis. 

15 



170 LIVING WORDS. 

It is not necessary to darken the present in order to 
enhance the excellence of the future ; and a true spiritual 
diligence will best be quickened by considering the pres- 
ent as part of the future. 



There is no reason for maintaining that the experience 
of the past would not be the experience of the present if 
Christianity had not appeared. .... If intellect and 
affection, if intuition and sentiment could have achieved 
this profound moral life, and this firm, transcendant faith, 
why did they not do so before Christ? Were there. not 
then as noble hearts and as colossal intellects as now ? 
Did not these intuitions work as curiously, did not reason 
seek as ardently for truth ? Did not the moral nature 
gravitate as spontaneously towards an ideal virtue ? Did 
not Love mourn as tenderly over the graves of the dead ? 
If, then, this high faith, this spiritual life, are merely 
natural developments, why not known before ? 



In his lowest estate man is compelled to be a seeker ; 
but then he easily finds what he seeks. In a higher 
condition he cuts loose from all his former trust, and 
demands truth so broad and deep that Christ alone can 
fill it. 



LIVING WORDS. 171 

Mighty has been the antagonism in the world between 
Christ's spirit of mercy and man's spirit of selfishness. 
Where the one has gone abroad as an iron force, the 
other has proceeded as a moral power. Where the one 
has swept like the tempest, the other has followed like 
the summer dawn. Where the one has embattled armed 
legions, the other has sent teachers of truth, missionaries 
of peace, and sisters of charity. Where the one has 
bleached the earth with human bones, the other has 
clothed it with shining harvests. Where the one has 
reared shambles of lust and marts of mammon, the other 
has built asylums and hospitals and opened countless 
channels of benevolence. Where the one has blotted 
heaven with the smoke of worldliness, and shut us in with 
walls of materialism, the other has revealed the starry 
prospect of immortality. Where the one has degraded 
man, nourished scepticism, and engendered despair, the 
other has kindled in the soul a consciousness of its des- 
tiny, and poured the great influences of redemption. 



In the religious view, all things stream from God's 
throne, and whatever sky hangs over them the infinite 
one is present ; prosperity is the sunshine that he has 
sent, and Faith as she weeps beholds a rainbow on the 
cloud. 



172 LIVING WORDS. 

The Christian result in the soul of man is, that he 
shall be enabled to do what he likes. It is so because 
the spirit of the Lord in the heart of a man makes him 
like to do God's will. 



A sharp disappointment will suddenly drive us to 
God. The mariner of life sails unthinking over its 
prosperous seas, but a flaw of storm will bring him to his 
prayers. 

When intellect attempts to define and grasp God it 
thereby gets confused. It darkens and does not reveal. 
It gives us riddles, not revelations. The pure heart 
alone lies like a mirror, and reflects God just as the still 
lake reflects the starry heavens. 



The great end of being is not fulfilled in any new rou- 
tine of obedience. The spirit of duty is greater than 
any form of duty, and there should be no limit to moral 
effort, as there is none to moral attainment. 



The mechanism of the state is not merely for classes, 
or for property, but for the great interests of the whole, 
and the true interests of the individual. 



LIVING WORDS. 173 

0, if there were a real freedom, that comes from the 
doing of God's will in this land, how the dry bones would 
begin to shake, how corrupt institutions would begin to 
tremble, how the chains would snap, how the abomina- 
tions that make us a hissing and a by- word would pass 
away ! For where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty, and not merely Fourth-of-July talk about it. 



Liberty is an old fact. It has had its heroes and its 
martyrs in almost every age. As I look back through the 
vista of centuries, I can see no end of the ranks of those 
who have toiled and suffered in its cause, and who wear 
upon their breasts its stars of the legion of honor. 



We are never to rest. There is to be no point in our 
spiritual career where we can touch our aphelion, and 
henceforward revolve in a fixed circle. There is to be 
no time when we are to aspire no more, and to attempt 
nothing greater. 



The conservative may clamor against reform, but he 
might as well clamor against the centrifugal force. He 
sighs for the " good old times, w — he might as well wish 
the oak back into the acorn. 
15* 



174 LIVING WORDS. 

Virtue, morality, religion — by whatever term we may 
call it — is not a set of regulations, but a constant growth 
and aspiration, an increasing assimilation to God, a har- 
monious condition of the soul, when it hangs self-balanced 
in holiness and love, and independent of all sanctions but 
such as inhere in these. 



Munificent nature follows the methods of the divine 
and true, and rounds all things to her perfect law. While 
nations are convulsed with blood and violence, how quietly 
the grass grows; and God now sees the earth tending 
constantly in one direction, — growing truer and better, 
— a minim in his universe, driving on its point of melody 
to swell the chorus of his majestic theme. 



The enormous sun is adjusted to the weed by the wall, 
and the little leaf has sympathies with Sirius. 



As art is a true expression of the soul's ideal, let us 
compare the loftiest exhibition of character that appears 
in a Grecian statue with the best that speaks from the 
marble of Angelo or the canvas of Raphael, and we shall 
see how striking is the demand which heathen virtue 
makes for Christianity. 



LIVING WORDS. 175 

Christianity is, in society, like that agency in the 
physical world which drives suns and systems on their 
tremendous track, yet binds them in glittering harmony, 
holds them to a central order, fills them with joyful life, 
and illuminates them with universal beauty. 



Opinion, so far as it is a matter of the intellect, 
cannot justly be charged with the sins of the heart. 



The poor shall love the poet, — the blessed, pious 
poor, — the sick heart shall feel a new pulse when he 
breathes, and the noble yet scorned mind shall know that 
there is a kindred spirit in the world ; the universal soul 
is moved, the sensualist gives signs of life, the mourner 
dries his tears, the bowed serf takes courage and looks 
forward, the hoary sinner trembles or melts, old error 
appears bald and hideous, tyrants shake, thrones totter, 
fetters snap asunder, and the whole mass of humanity is 
stirred, as the waters are stirred by the rushing of a swift 
wind. 



The best kind of a pic-nic is a pick at Old Nick, and 
if he sticks up his head in the shape of a . rum-cask or 
slavery I go for 'a crack at it. 



176 LIVING WORDS. 

There is one great distinction between the productions 
of Heathen and of Christian art. While the first exhibits 
the perfection of physical form and of intellectual beauty, 
the latter expresses also the majesty of sorrow, the grand- 
eur of endurance, the idea of triumph refined from agony. 
In all those shapes of old there is nothing like the glory 
of the martyr, the sublimity of patience and resignation, 
the dignity of the thorn-crowned Jesus. 

It is easy to account for this. In that Heathen age the 
soul had received no higher inspiration. It was only after 
the advent of Christ that men realized the greatness of 
sorrow and endurance. It was not until the history of 
the Garden, the Judgment-hall, and the Cross had been 
developed, that genius caught nobler conceptions of the 
beautiful. This fact is, therefore, a powerful witness to 
the truth of Christianity. Christ's personality, as delin- 
eated in the gospels, is not only demonstrated by a change 
of dynasties, — an entire new movement in the world, — a 
breaking up of its ancient order; but the moral ideal which 
now^eads human action, which has wrought this en- 
thusiasm, and propelled man thus strangely forward, has 
entered the subjective realities of the soul, breathed a new 
inspiration upon it, opened up to it a new conception; 
and lo ! the statue dilates with a diviner expression, — 
lo ! the picture wears a more lustrous and spiritual beauty. 
Christ, then, has verily lived ; for his image has been re- 



LIVING WORDS. 177 

fleeted in the minds of men, and has fastened itself there 
among their most intimate and vivid conceptions. 



Poetry is the utterance of truth — deep, heartfelt 
truth. The true poet is very near the oracle. 



If a railroad company is too poor to pay for engines 
and for iron let it stop. If it does not every consecutive 
bar of iron is a consecutive deceit, and every old, leaky, 
dilapidated, dislocated, asthmatic locomotive is a clattering 
falsehood. 



A man who is simply living by what we call a system 
of good habits, — a habit of temberance, a habit of chas- 
tity, a habit of economy, a habit of prudence,— ■ has to 
steady them every time he goes down hill, for fear they 
will fall off, and push them every time he goes up hill. 
But when a man has a love of God, and Christ, and 
goodness, there is no more danger of these falling off and 
breaking, than of a man's organism falling to pieces. It 
becomes a vital element of his being, — a central spring, 
compact and consistent with the whole of his nature. 
And if occasionally such a man does break out, here and 
there, in a fault or in a folly, he has within him that 
which rallies him to act and overcome it. 



178 LIVING WORDS. 

We can imagine a world in which there is no work. 
A world bathed in incessant summer, whose seed-times 
and harvests are ever mingling, whose springing influ- 
ences perpetually ascend, whose fruitage perpetually rip- 
ens through all the procession of its golden year. A 
world in which man would never feel the sting of want, 
and where the felicities of being would unfold without his 
effort. But we cannot conceive any such world, connected 
with human peculiarities and necessities, one half, one 
tithe so glorious as our old world of struggle and of 
labor. For wherever God has admitted man's agency 
the noblest results, the achievements of real worth and 
splendor are the fruits of patient and sinewy toil. They 
have come from the suggestions of want and the problems 
of difficulty ; they have been w T on in wrestling with the 
elements ; they have been torn from the w^omb of nature. 
Labor, with its coarse raiment and its bare right arm, has 
gone forth in the earth, achieving the truest conquests 
and rearing the most durable monuments. It has opened 
the domain of matter and the empire of mind. The 
wild beast has fled before it, and the wilderness has 
fallen back. The rock at its touch has grown plastic, 
and the stream obsequious. It has tilled the soil and 
planted cities. Discovery accompanies it with its com- 
pass and telescope. Invention proclaims it with its press, 
and heralds it through the earth with its flaming chariot. 



LIVING WORDS. 179 

It is enriched with " the wealth of nations.' 5 It is 
crowned with the trophies of intellect. Its music rises 
in the shout of the mariner, the song of the husbandman, 
the hum of multitudes. It rings in the din of hammers 
and the roar of wheels. Its triumphal march is the pro- 
gress of civilization. There are lands of luxurious climate 
and almost spontaneous production ; yet who looks there 
for freedom and virtue, — for the bravest hearts and the 
noblest souls? But the elements of liberty, the glories 
of intelligence, the sanctities of home, and the institutions 
of religion abide in sterner soil and beneath colder skies, 
— where the fisherman feels his way through the mist 
that wraps the iron sea-coast, and the reaper snatches his 
harvest from the skirts of winter. And who would not 
pray, " Give us the manly nerve, the strenuous will, and 
the busy thought, rather than golden placers and diamond 
mines" ? And instead of a realm sick with spontaneous 
plenty and desolate with riches, who would not prefer the 
granite fields that grudge their latent bounty, since they 
induce not only the exertions but the blessings of toil ? 



The world is the great place for us to work in, and 
there is work a plenty for us to do. Any man who does 
not believe this ought to be shut up in a glass jar, and 
made to suck God's atmosphere through a straw. 



180 JIVING WORDS, 

The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have 
been tried, and smelted, and polished, and glorified through 
the furnace of tribulation. 



If the poor man's earthly lot is hard, it makes more 
welcome the suggestions of heaven. The strictures of 
necessity, the sharp mockeries of disappointment fill him 
with a sense of dependence, and put his soul in a position 
to wait upon God. He has his peculiar temptations ; yet 
so long as they do not pin him down and imprison him 
they do not cause him to become fascinated with the 
world. His upward escape from it is easier than for the 
rich man. Eternal splendors stream clearer through the 
rents in his earthly fortune, and divine visitants have a 
readier access to him. His wealthy brother is shut in 
with comfort, and forms of luxurious obeisance stand 
around his bed. But what though his couch be the bare 
earth, and his canopy the sky? the more immediately 
is he enfolded by the sanctities that environ our mortal 
lot. His stony pillow may become, like Jacob's, the foot 
of a celestial ladder, — the landing-place of angels. 



The angels may have wider spheres of action, may 
have nobler forms of duty. But right with them and 
with us is one and the same thing. 



LIVING WORDS. 181 

« 
The man of principle needs not the restrictions of seal 

or signature, or any legal instrument. He deals in soli- 
tude as in public, at midnight as in the sunshine. His 
heart is the throne of honor 5 and his brow the witness of 
manly integrity. His grasped hand is as good as a bond, 
and his promise as sterling gold. The complicated inter- 
ests of men, which so often jar and conflict, are reconciled 
in him with a beautiful harmony. He is himself the em- 
bodiment of justice, the symbol of a perfect society 

His charities are not the droppings of a formal pity, but 

the ointment of a yearning love In his soul there 

is a fountain of humor, and, close by, a fountain of tears. 
His spirit is an instrument strung to every proper mood, 
touched by the light graces of the passing hour, or swept 
by "solemn thoughts that wander through eternity. " 



Temptation cannot exist without the concurrence of 

inclination and opportunity A man may spurn evil 

suggestions ninety-nine times, and yield upon the hun- 
dredth, because that jumps exactly with his inclination. 



We make for ourselves the essential character of the 
conditions in which we are placed. All that is of real 
moment in our life, all that is enduring, we carry with us 
— we carry in us. 
16 



182 LIVING WORDS. 

That pool of loathsome intemperance has been fed by 
rills trickling fromh eights of respectability and through 
marble aqueducts of fashion. Those faces, pale, dis- 
torted, furious, tossed about in that dark sea of slime 
and fire, look upward and ca^ch a reflection that plays 
through the prism of cut-glass decanters and the colors 
of champagne and cogniac. 



The place in which a man stands, and the work he is 
called upon to do, is secondary to the spirit in which he 
works, and the result that abides after it. These matters 
that are talked about so much in the world, — these dif- 
ferent sorts of position or occupation, — what transparent 
wrappages, what cases of colored glass, what temporary 
frameworks are they all, inside which plays the essential 
mechanism of our manhood, involving the same responsi- 
bilities and working under the same relentless laws ! 
This soot and blaze, this aristocratic splendor and vulgar 
grime, are but the varying processes and shifting tints of 
that great chemistry in which the common humanity is 
tried out and refined. God weighs the fine gold, and it 
will be fine gold forever, whether set in a coronet or ham- 
mered out in the coarsest drudgery of life. 



Each age holds the contents of all other ages, 



LIVING WORDS. 183 

The atmosphere in which a man lives he inevitably 
imparts. There are some people who come upon you like 
a fog-bank driven by the east wind off from an iceberg, 
that chills you all through. There are others that make 
you happy in their presence always. They are like 
fruits and flowers, and they retain their fragrance and 
aroma, 0, how long ! They send it out to us continually 
from their hearts and lives. Men are moving zones ; the 
climate in some seems to be frigid ; come very near them, 
and very likely it will make you shudder. Other men 
are like the tropical heats in the South, — they always 
consume us. Others are calm and temperate, and like 
the still influences of our northern spring, or like the 
solemn midnight. 



The Uncreated is illustrated in all his creation. That 
which makes the perpetual noon of heaven shines in 
every ray of earth. That which belongs to the infinite 
spirit is reflected in the soul of man. 



A transcendent faith, a cheerful trust turns the 
darkness of night into a pillar of fire, and the cloud by 
day into a perpetual glory. They who thus march on 
are refreshed even in the wilderness, and hear streams of 
gladness trickling among the rocks. 



184 LIVING WORDS. 

MOCKERY never degrades the just. The good cannot 
he shamed. The arrows of persecution, the sharp mis- 
siles of scorn glance from them harmless ; more than this, 
they illustrate their virtue. Though it be not true that 
the man makes the circumstances, it is true that the man 
gives character to the circumstances. The strong level 
all obstacles to their purpose. In trial, the good shine 
with a refined lustre. Wealth, nor power, nor adulation 
can ennoble the mean. But the righteous turn ignominy 
into glory. They do not create, but they command. By 
a virtue that is in them they subdue all accidents into 
tone and keeping with themselves. Character is greater 
than circumstances, and may get the mastery over them. 
The trial of our Saviour illustrates this truth. Never did 
malignant hatred and heartless cruelty accumulate upon 
their victim grosser insignia of punishment and scorn. 
They scourged him, they buffeted him, they spit upon 
him ; but this was not enough. In order to connect the 
idea of his sovereignty with the meanest ridicule they 
tore off his garments, threw around his bleeding shoulders 
a purple robe, placed in his hand as a sceptre a miserable 
reed, and platting a crown of thorns crowded it, with its 
rankling points, upon his head, and then, with mock 
humility and spiteful grimace, did homage to him. But 
though all this was meant to deride him never did he 
seem more truly a king. We shudder, but it is at the 
sacrilegious spirit of his persecutors ! We weep — it is 



LIVING WORDS. 185 

because that brow of love is lacerated by cruel thornes ! 
But not for an instant does Jesus seem to us debased or 
contemptible. Vilely arrayed as he is, he stands there 
amid that brutal soldiery, amid the malignity that peers 
upon him, a serene and holy character, and everything 
feels its influence. . . . The more they seek to debase 
him the more majestic he appears. To those mock em- 
blems of sovereignty his pure life imparts a royal lustre. 
They degrade not him, but he ennobles them. He comes 
forth wearing a crown of thorns. To us it is the same as 
if he wore a diadem. h 



Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls ; the 
most massive characters are seamed with scars ; martyrs 
have put on their coronation-robes glittering with fire, 
and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the 
gates of heaven. 



All that affliction of the darkest kind ever can work 
to the true soul is to awaken it up to spiritual things, to 
open the clear eye, to make the spiritual reality the more 
real. If you rightly comprehend it it only strikes that 
which is round about you, it only removes that which is 
outward and physical, but it leaves you all the same a 
greater and a better man for your trial. 
16* 



ISO LIVING WORDS. 

The shadow of death is around you, bereaved 
mother ! and its cold desolation has come between you 
and your child. You take the little hand, and it lies 
heavy in your own ; you press the lips, and they quiver 
with no response ; and you must put away in the grave 
the form that has nestled close to your heart, and the 
head that you have crowned with a thousand prayers and 
hopes. And you cannot see why we exist at all, — why 
such tender relationships are woven to be shattered, and 
such deep wells of love opened in the human breast only 
to overflow with tears. Ah ! it is because humanity is 
not an earthly flower, to unfold in bright air and then 
perish forever ; but an undying germ, to struggle upward 
out of limitation, and find surer root as its props break 
away, and to be refined by tears, and to shed rich frag- 
rance in the night-time of sorrow, and to glow with a 
more intense and fixed love as its objects vanish from 
sight. If life is but a form your affliction is inexplicable ; 
but if it is substance — if it is intrinsic and inalienable 
power, excellence, beauty — then the bliss of the suffer- 
ing and the peace of the poor, and the victory of martyrs, 
and all the fine gold of character that has been smelted in 
the furnace of trial, illustrate and vindicate the purpose 
of our being. There is something for man better than 
happiness, else he might have lived and perished as the 
lily of the field. There is spiritual strength for him, 
which is developed by struggling ; there is faith whose 



LIVING WORDS. 187 

telescope sweeps the immensities of eternity when the 
nearer earth is veiled in darkness ; there is trust which 
• springs up in the shattering of all earthly supports ; and 
there is that completeness and harmony and divine assim- 
ilation of character w T h;ch is wrought out only by disci- 
pline. 



Not in the achievement, but in the endurance of the 
human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alli- 
ance with the infinite God. 



We are in a condition of life or death not merely as 
we do or do not this or that good act, but according as 
we are or are not in ourselves, essentially good. 



Tribulation will not hurt you unless it does — what, 
alas ! it too often does — unless it hardens you, and 
makes you sour, and narrow, and sceptical. 



As the eye is fitted to the light, as the ear to sound, 
so the human soul is fitted to the apprehension of spirit- 
ual realities; and it does apprehend these realities, 
through the veils of the visible detecting the things that 
are invisible. 



188 LIVING WORDS. 

The foundations of many a cause now strong and 
flourishing were laid in tears and blood. 



All things tell of the universal Father, — all things 
prophecy ultimate good. As science withdraws the veils 
of nature, in every depth, in every recess, it discovers a 
ray of that love which was concentrated upon the cross. 
It sees no hopeless incongruity. It argues no endless 
suffering. The keenest analysis can detect no such thing 
as unmitigated evil. It falls not as a residuum into any 
crucible. The bright worlds above tell of peace and 
harmony ; and at the farthest verge of creation, as at the 
centre, their sparkling glories speak of wisdom, benefi- 
cence, and design, — the moving of a great purpose en- 
compassed by infinite love as by universal space. Thus 
all nature seems weaving the tissues of a sublime work. 
Slowly yet surely, from the seeming evil, evolves the sub- 
stantial good. The isolated fact which yesterday ap- 
peared so contradictory, to-day, as we open upon a higher 
series, exhibits a beautiful adaptation. The discords 
which pained us so, as we draw near them swell into a 
mighty harmony. 



We must look for the primal truths, the authentic 
elements of things, in that which is spontaneous and 
universal. 



LIVING WORDS. 189 

The things that are the most providential in this life 
are the difficult things. Therein lies the glory of man 
and the goodness of God. 



In the material and the spiritual worlds nothing is at 
loose ends ; but everywhere there is a sacred order, an 
intelligible tendency, and a fixed result. 



WfiAT comes out of nature now is religion. The front 
of sceptical investigation is passing away. The porten- 
tious genii issuing from the chemist's crucible, the nebu- 
lous suggestions of the doubtful astronomer, and the like, 
are all merging into Christian truth, and faith, and 
knowledge; and we involuntarily cry out, "How mar- 
vellous are thy works, Lord ! " 



From the scientific discoveries of our day we may 
claim this result : that what we see of the material uni- 
verse demands our faith in greater powers that we do not 
see, — makes mind, spirit, a clearer reality than matter, 
and with innumerable voices from awful depths of mys- 
tery rebukes that arrogant scepticism that confines all 
power and being to the sensible world, and will believe 
only what it sees and comprehends. 



190 LIVING WORDS. 

The individual and the race are always moving, and 
as we drift into new latitudes new lights open in the 
heaven more immediately over us. 



We must study nature not alone in the dry light of 
reason, but in the glow of religious sentiment. We must 
stand in that position where a moral light falls upon it, 
illuminating its hieroglyphic beauty with a clear, spiritual 
significance. We must see it all generalized in God; 
then we may descend to intellectual formulas and 'defini- 
tions The chain of induction which we so painfully 

elaborate, link by link, must be charged with the magnet- 
ism of faith and love. Then will it be traversed by cur- 
rents of spiritual life, rending the veil of materialism, 
and opening the mysteries of the universe. 



Christ saw much in this world to weep over, and much 
to pray over ; but he saw nothing in it to look upon with 
contempt. 



The book of Ecclesiastes would be the gospel if there 
were no God in whom our minds were stayed, and in 
whose wise and beneficent purposes, working beyond all 
human ends, we could trust. * 



LIVING WORDS. 191 

In the mere form of the work nature will always 
eclipse art, and take the premiums. There is nothing 
like her crystal palace out-doors, over whose inaugural 
beauty the morning-stars sang together, and whose dome 
is the immensity of light. She will show an insect's eye 
to humble all our skill. She will flash her tints from the 
arc of the rainbow and the gates of the sunset, and make 
our richest dyes look pale By the side of our finest 
fabrics she will hang her oriental lilies ; yes, her familiar 
summer flowers ; and all their glory cannot be compared 
to one of these. But when we consider labor as the de- 
veloped energy of the soul, — when we look upon art as 
representing spiritual substance, — then we perceive the 
real significance of their products. Then every utensil 
becomes a hieroglyphic of human progress. Then every 
fabric shows not only w T hat man has wrought out of 
nature, but what is in him, and goes forth from him, 
transcending nature. 



If this earth were turned into a physical paradise, 
and every man made an independent sovereign of the soil, 
there woul$ still be the same unsatisfied capacities, the 
same deep moral wants. The great end of man is not to 
be adjusted to the world, but to be raised above it, and he 
needs a Redeemer more than a reformer. 



192 LIVING WORDS. 

Ix this old world, battle-scarred, sin-stained, brutalized 
as it is, there was something that Christ could not de- 
spise, — even the pure Christ. There was something in 
it that he so loved that he gave his blood for it. And I 
know, poor, sceptical, canting philosopher, that the world 
and humanity are not the mean things you say, because I 
measure them by the attitude and expression of Christ's 
spirit toward them. 



Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, shows how this 
valley of Baca, bright with angels' wings, surrounded 
with a great crowd of witnesses, is a great race-course 
and field of noble effort, in which men press forward to 
the highest attainment ; not a ball of dust and ashes, not 
a theatre of sensual action, but a noble field, glorified, 
lifted up, and lighted with God's light, — full of glorious 
influences the moment the inward eyes are unsealed. 



It is always the tendency of the highest knowledge to 
melt off into devotion, — to be reverent and thankful, — 
to find God at the end of its explorations. 



Christianity has made martyrdom sublime, and sor- 
row triumphant. 



LIVING WORDS. 193 

The man who lies down and goes to sleep, instead of 
doing his work, is not patient, or, if he has patience, it is 
of the wrong kind, and nobody else has any with him. 
God has not any, nor anybody else, with the lazy man. 



It would astonish a man sometimes to take the torch 
of introspection, and go down through his own heart, and 
see how many different faces will look out upon him from 
its chambers, each one himself, in some phase of possibil- 
ity that lurks in his own nature. 



In every step we take, that admonition of an unfinished 
work speaks to us. Whence comes this restlessness 
within us? What is the purpose of this unquenched 
desire within the soul? We secure one end, but still 
seek for another. We heap up so much wealth, but ask' 
for more. We increase in knowledge, and yet there is a 
void. We rise in reputation, but we are not satisfied. 
No; we cannot be satisfied with anything short of the 
true end of our being. We cannot be satisfied until 
Christ is formed in us. 



The best method of acquiring the ability to do what 
we would is to do what we can, 
17 



194 LIVING WORDS. 

The noblest men of this day are the devoutest men. 
The greatest thinkers are men who pray, — who meditate 
upon God ? — in whose hearts roll the old anthems of the 
church that have swept up through the ages, with a gush 
of melody, for nineteen hundred years. They are devo- 
tional as well as logical ; — they feel, as well as think. 



The mystery of this soul enshrined in flesh, even 
though it be sinful flesh, is, that there is in it that which 
enables it to claim kinship with God ; — there is in it a 
nature like to his nature. ye stars that light up the 
vestibules of heaven ! ye glories of creation, with all 
your magnificence and power ! how ye shrivel up and 
grow dim before the possibilities of the human soul ! The 
poorest beggar has that kinship to God by which he may 
aspire to be perfect even as God is perfect. 



The testimony to Christianity is the witness of human 
experience. We are made aware of its adaptedness be- 
cause more and more driven to seek its aid. We discover 
that it is the universal and permanent light because we 
are passing into a circle which that light alone can fill. 
We know it to be the word of eternal life, for nothing 
else answers our questions or confirms our best anticipa- 
tions. 



LIVING WORDS. 195 

We may blossom into angels, for aught we know, — 
angels who cast their crowns before God, praising him 
continually. But must we stop there ? No ; the requi- 
sition is, " Be ye perfect even as your Father who is in 
heaven is perfect." You never can .be that; and that is 
the glory of it. You -will always be striving for it, — 
always pressing forward, — always moving upward ; and 
all eternity becomes a development of effort, — a cease- 
less growth, — a continual aspiration after perfection. 



He who has climbed to Alpine heights of wisdom must 
be humble ; for looking off he sees not the dead wall that 
seems to line our vision, but a universe in which break 
waves of being without an echo, and around which hangs 
the awful darkness that conceals the springs of nature and 
the mysteries of God. 



The sails may be set from the proud ship's masts, the 
compass may point duly to the north, and the chart be 
unrolled; but unless a strong hand rests upon the helm, 
and a master treads the deck, she rolls among the billows, 
and drifts where the four winds send her. So with every 
facility for success, and the light of promise in the soul, 
the man neglecting the lawful means of subsistence can- 
not expect to find those means working for him without 
his agency. 



196 LIVING WORDS. 

How much stronger than the banded legions of the 
mighty, than the decrees of kings, is one free, earnest 
soul, as he utters those words which shall move a hundred 
generations: "Here stand I; — I cannot otherwise; — 
God help me." 



If we are hazarding opportunities, and gifts, and facul- 
ties for mere earthly and sensual gain ; if we are playing 
for wealth, or pleasure, or fame, instead of living for 
another life, — instead of seeking that we may grow like 
Christ, — what are we but gamesters all ? 



It is because we underrate thought — because ,we do 
not see what a great element it is in religious life — that 
there is so little of practical and consistent religion among 
us. 



Complex as it may be in its operations, our spiritual 
being in itself is one indissoluble unity. The feelings do 
not move without some light from the intellect ; and the 
brain feels the pulses of the heart. 



The strongest argument against the philosophy of 
materialism is not dialectic. It leaps out from the very 
depths of human nature, 



LIVING WORDS. 197 

There is one thing certain : every man has a call 
from God, and if he really throws himself with earnest 
heart into life, and asks with a deep sense of moral 
responsibility "What can I do?" he will find some 
little shred of power that will catch him to God's great 
plan, and weave out results incalculable. 



Fatalism, whether it assume the form of torpid acqui- 
escence or of inconsiderate reliance, is not resignation. 
It is right to recognize an overruling Providence, but 
it is a Providence that w T orks with us, not for us. The 
impatience with which we beat the walls of difficulty, and 
heave against misfortune, is not an impious discontent, but 
a spring of noble enterprise, which God encourages, for 
which he has opened a wide sphere of action, and by 
which alone we can achieve success. To suppose that he 
prevents this effort is to suppose that he infringes his own 
ordinances, established for the wisest and most benevolent 
ends. To attribute calamity to him, without making this 
effort, is to confound faith with folly, and religion with 
laziness. Only by the diligent exertion of our own will 
can we realize the will of God mysteriously working with 
us. Only when we have reached the boundary of our 
extremest effort can we see the superior purpose which 
encircles us. 

17* 



198 LIVING WORDS. 

I would not give anything for the most eloquent 
preacher in the world who had not back of that the elo- 
quence of a life of moral power, of a consistent character ; 
and then it is not so much the words that are said as the 
unction streaming as it were from God himself that has 
the effect. 



The further we penetrate the embankments of evil 
the thinner the strata appear, while the great underlying 
power of life is goodness. When we rise above the earth- 
shadows which cover us, and which dwindle away in the 
universal space filled with God's love, — the further we 
pierce, and rise, and penetrate, — the more do the ex- 
ceptional facts fall away, and the general rule of goodness 
appears. The most intelligent faith is the most cheerful 
faith. Instead of being a mere sentimental conception of 
God, that he is good, it is a conception confirmed by the 
broadest knowledge, and by the most solid intelligence. 



Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among 
the stars, — not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dis- 
pensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is 
the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the 
storm has passed. It is the light that hovers above the 
judgment-seat. 



LIVING WORDS. 199 

Nature is fixed capital ; but, if I may use the term, 
every man in God's hands, or, as God has sent him into 
the world, is speculative capital, a possibility that you 
cannot limit. 



The noblest -wisdom, the best knowledge of all, is that 
of a pure, earnest, loving heart. There is a knowledge 
in -which man grows as he truly grows in religion. The 
harmony without responds to a harmony within. The 
good man alone reads the wisdom printed on leaf and 
flower. God has made the sea a great organ, whose 
pedals and stops are in the heart of the earth ; only the 
good man's soul discerns its melody. He has made the 
rainbow beautiful to the eyes of a little child, but only 
faith and love can interpret its meaning. He has made 
the stars golden ladders through infinity ; only the puri- 
fied spirit shall tread them. He has given us, best of 
all, the divine life of Christ; only the Christ-like soul 
shall understand and live it. Here are sources of knowl- 
edge, here is a power, richer than any other, which the 
ignorant may possess, and the wise be ignorant of. 



The deepest life of nature is silent and obscure ; so, 
often, the elements that move and mould society are the 
results of the sister's counsel and the mother's prayer. 



200 LIVING WORDS. 

"Wjiex banners have been furled, and swords sheathed, 
and cannons hushed, and men have learned a nobler wis- 
dom than they have heretofore practised, the grandest 
foundations of society will be built upon Christ's law of 
love. 



The student of nature is like one w T ho goes with a 
candle into some immense cavern. Presently a little 
circle becomes clear, the shadows vanish before him, and 
undefined forms grow distinct. . He thinks he is near the 
end, when, lo ! what seemed a solid boundary of rock dis- 
solves and floats away into a depth of darkness, the path 
opens into an immense void, new shapes of mystery start 
out, and he learns this much that he did not know before, 
that . instead of being near the end he is only upon the 
threshold. 



He who finds the platform where best he can truly 
benefit others and himself need not feel that he is stepping 
down, or going apart from the divine presence and bless- 
ing as into some unsanctified sphere. 



Those lofty souls, far upward on the mountain-steeps 
of spiritual attainment, and whose garments glisten in 
their nearness to heaven, have trodden the ground that 
lies between inch by inch. 



LIVING WORDS. 201 

If the gospel does not explain all the mysteries of life, 
and solve the great enigma of evil, the irresistible proof 
of its authenticity, that which answers all questions and 
silences all cavils, is its efficacy in enabling us to bear 
our trials, to overcome them, to convert them into crowns 
of joy and springs of consolation. 



She who stood with Christ in his, humiliation is called 
to accompany him in his triumph. She came with her 
affections to honor the shame of his cross. In the new 
age that is dawning upon us these affections shall be 
closely associated with the power of his spirit who hung 
there. 



Woman, of all beings, needs the life and the power of 
religion. When we consider what she is called upon to 
do, what interests come under her influence, what brave 
yet tender virtues she must cherish, where can she go but 
to him who alone has lived these virtues, and from whom 
alone their spirit emanates ? 



All that can be said of the martyr or of the patriot 
is, that he diligently occupied the post of duty ; and this 
may be said of you. And it is better to die at the post 
of duty than to live elsewhere. 



202 LIVING WORDS. 

How do all other things shrivel in view of the immense 
possibility that is before every man ! How do all things 
grow dim before this ! how do brocade and velvet become 
like rags, and coronets become as tinsel, before the pos- 
session of this immortal nature, which God says, " Oc- 
cupy, exercise, watch over, and take care of ?J ! That 
which you will carry with you is the thing which you 
are to consider. That which you leave behind you, it 
makes comparatively little difference what is its rank or 
mark. When men lie with the hands folded and the 
eyes closed what matter if covered with the robes of a 
king or the rags of a beggar ? Silently, invisibly, down 
the dark mystic river, is drifted the soul ; and we carry 
with it all that is really worthy, — all which should really 
be our object to acquire in the school of life. 



There must be something wrong in a man when he 
is afraid of himself, — when he dreads the revelation of 
his own soul. 



The sun uses its power of brightness to shine ; the 
violet on the bank uses its power of fragrance to breathe 
it forth ; and all things are using their powers up to their 
highest capacities. All but man ; — man alone is guilty 
of what may be called the great sin of unused power. 



LIVING WORDS* 203 

The true Church is not an institution to be kept apart 
from the world because the world "is common and un- 
clean/ 7 but a vital heart of truth and love, beating with 
the life of Jesus, and sending abroad its sanctifying pul- 
sations until nothing shall be common and unclean. 



When all theories are set adrift, and all questions agi- 
tated, how necessary is it that we should be convinced 
that there is everlasting truth. When sceptred authority 
is broken, and the stability of all government is shaken by 
the eager rush of revolution, how much do we need to 
believe in an immutable moral control. And while 
science draws the veil from the primeval earth, and shows 
us the wrecks of successive epochs, and prophecies the 
funeral-pyre of suns and systems, how sublime is it to 
feel the beating pulses of illimitable love, to confide in 
Him to whose spirit we are allied, and who will maintain 
us in being through all material changes. And is it not 
the bliss and the miracle of prayer that it lifts us away 
from our sins, our little cares, our teasing wants, and all 
the mutations of earth, and embosoms us in the com- 
munion of the Eternal. 



The true spirit of martyrdom forbids that selfishness 
which sometimes seeks martyrdom, 



204 LIVING WORDS. 

11 Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the 
day is far spent." This is peculiarly a prayer for old 
age. Already the long shadows fall before its tottering 
feet, and the sun sinks lower to the horizon. The pulses 
of desire beat more feebly. The plans of young ambition 
have been realized or broken. The relationships of life 
have been formed, and many of them have been severed. 
The contriving mind is growing weak, and the vigor that 
could second its enterprises has departed. The voices 
that the old man heard in his youth have one by one 
become still, or if a few speak yet it is with the discord 
of superannuation. The hands that grasped his so heart- 
ily in the days long past are now formless dust, except, 
it may be, a few, which, taking his with paralyzed tremor 
like his own, say plainer than words, " My brother, it is 
death that shakes us so ! " The narrow valley declines 
before them. Old father, mother, thou must tread it ! 
Thou canst not even carry with thee thy dust-worn san- 
dals nor thy staff. Ah ! if thou hast Christian faith we 
know thy answer now : " I am not alone ! I have one 
affection in my bosom that cannot be disappointed. He 
whom I love has sustained me when I knelt upon familiar 
graves. He has drawn nearer and nearer to me, as my 
aged eyes have become dim, and all else seemed vanish- 
ing before me. I know in whom I have trusted. His 
loving kindness will not fail me now. I see, I see, my 
sands are almost 'out, and my feet halt among unbroken 



LIVING WORDS. 205 

shadows. I will cling to him the closer. " Abide with 
me, Christ ! for it is toward evening, and the day is far 
spent." 



Upon him who has humbly sought his post of duty, 
and who bravely works in it, we may be sure God looks 
down with approbation, and often sees more worthy sym- 
bols in the coarse apron and the black thumbs than in 
stars and coronets. 

There is no mean work save that which is sordidly 
selfish ; there is no irreligious work save that which is 
morally wrong; while in every sphere of life "the post 
of honor is the post of duty." 



"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till 
thou return to the ground." Some men shirk this, in one 
way or another, but in reality they sweat more than any- 
body else. He who has really stranded in such a position 
that he has no call to do anything is the most miserable 
man in the world. 



Sometimes men heap coals of fire on their enemy's 
head in order to love him ; but they are very much dis- 
appointed if the coals do not scorch. 
18 



206 LIVING AVORDS. 

There is a time when the humblest disciple of Christ 
may weep as he also wept. But let him also strive as 
Christ strove. Let him not dash his grief in rebellious 
billows to the throne ; let not his groans arise in angry, 
resentful murmurs ; let the remembrance of what God is 
and why he does be with him, and let the filial, reverent 
trust steal in, — "Not my will, but thine be done." 
That reference to God, that obedience to him, rising from 
the very depths of sorrow, and clung to without faltering, 
is resignation. It shall bestow peace and victory in 
the end. ! how different from that sullen fatalism that 
lets things come as they will ! To such a soul things do 
come as they will, and it hardens under them ; — they 
do come as they will, but it sees not, cares not, why they 
come. No thought goes up beyond the cloud to God, — 
no strength is born that shall make life's trials lighter, 
— no love and faith that will seek the Father's hand in the 
darkest hour, and shed a serene, enduring light over the 
thorny path of affliction and upon the bosom of the grave. 
Look at these two. Outwardly their calmness may be 
the same. Nay, the one may evince emotion and tears, 
while the other shall stand rigid in the hour of calamity, 
with a bitter smile or a frow T n of endurance. But in the 
one is strength, in the other rigidity ; in the one is power 
to triumph over sorrow, in the other only nervous capacity 
to resist it. The one is hardened to. indifference, sullen 
because of irreligion. upon whom some sorrow will one 



LIVING WORDS. 207 

day fall that will peel him to the quick, and he will not 
know where to flee for healing. The other is man con- 
tending against evil, yet not against God ; — man with all 
the tenderness and strength of his nature, impressible, yet 
unconquerable, walking with feet that bleed among the 
wounding thorns, and a heart that shrinks from the heavy 
woe, yet,, all lacerated as he is, able to walk through, 
because he holds by the hand of Omnipotence. The one 
is the unbending tree, peeled by the lightning and 
stripped by the north wind, lifting its gored and gnarled 
head in sullen defiance to the storm, which, when the 
storm does overcome it, shall be broken. The other also 
is rooted in strength, and meets the rushing blast with a 
lofty front. But as "it smiles in sunshine so it bends 
in storm, ;? trustful and obedient, yet firm and brave, and 
nothing shall overwhelm it. 



Let a man be bold when he stands upon the ramparts 
of God's truth, and proclaims God's right, but let him be 
appalled when he descends from those ramparts and calls 
up carnal, abusive, bloody weapons; for he is liable 3 
though he may inscribe the right upon his banner, and 
may be marching with God over his head, to be beaten 
down, because he is undertaking to cast out Satan by 
Satan. 



208 LIVING WORDS. 

The soul, like the body, acquires vigor by the exercise 
of all its faculties. In the midst of the world, in over- 
coming difficulties, in conquering selfishness, indolence, 
and fear. — in all the occasions of duty, it employs, and 
reveals by employing, energies that render it efficient and 
robust, — that broaden its scope, adjust its powers, and 
mature it with a rich experience. 



Our moral action must issue from deep fountains 
within us, springing up in meditation and sanctified by 
prayer. Those plants of righteousness that will endure 
the scorching noon and the beating tempest must be 
silently nurtured by the dews of the night and the early 
breathings of the morning. There never yet was accom- 
plished any great work that was not the fruit of long and 
patient thought. Men have first constructed in the re- 
sources of their own souls those great results which have 
astonished us. From lonely heights* of meditation they 
have come down to change the destinies of the world, — to 
revolutionize its ideas, to touch all its springs of action. 
So moral energy and endurance, and all that spiritual 
depth and symmetry which helps make a truly religious 
character, must be wrought out *by self-discipline, by in- 
ward scrutiny, by frequent communion with great truths. 
.... Fresh streams of inspiration bear onward the soul 
that would climb to perfection. 



LIVING WORDS. 209 

Do not baptize your passions with the name of prin- 
ciple, or confound your sharp, selfish persistence with the 
awful "I dare not" of the brave soul that fears God 
more than man. 



The unmerciful man is most certainly an unblessed 
man. His sympathies are all dried up; he is afflicted 
with a chronic jaundice, and lives timidly and darkly in 
a little, narrow rat-hole of distrust. He has no free use 
of the world ; he breathes no liberal and generous air ; 
he walks in no genial sunshine. He loses all the bliss 
that comes from sympathy, from open-heartedness, from 
familiar and confiding associations. More than this, such 
a theory of humanity is an open self-condemnation. 
Whence has he derived this theory ? Upon what prem- 
ises has he built it up? Surely, from his own self- 
consciousness, from his own personal experience. There 
is darkness within him, and so darkness falls upon every- 
thing. His own motives are sinister, and so all humanity 
squints. The suspicious man, — the man who distrusts 
all other men, and so is unmerciful to all, — reveals him- 
self as a mean man. 



Public feeling now is apt to side with the persecuted ; 
and our modern martyr is full as likely to be smothered 
with roses as with coals. 

18* 



210 LIVING WORDS, 

Mercy is in complete harmony with justice 

There is no conflict between mercy and absolute right. 
.... Unmerciful justice is unjust, and unjust mercy 
unmerciful Mercy considers not merely tempo- 
rary and isolated relief, but the general welfare ; so does 
justice. For instance : in permitting an offender to go 
free from all rebuke and punishment we do not exercise 
genuine mercy. We are not merciful to society ; for we 
let loose upon its interests unrestrained and encouraged 
crime. We are not merciful to the offender ; for we leave 
him to the sweep of his own passions, and the deepening 
canker of his guilt. The father who never corrects his 
child may be a soft-hearted but he is not a merciful 
parent. There is no mercy in letting the child have its 
own will, plunging headlong with the bits in its mouth 
to destruction. 



While the secret of a leaf is not known : while no 
man can penetrate the mystery of existence ; while reve- 
lations of a higher truth continually break in upon us, 
— shall we, in the poverty of our knowledge, say what 
cannot be? Shall we deny those great spiritual laws 
which throb in our own consciousness ? Shall we reject 
those affirmations of miracle and of immortal life to which 
our best capacities and desires respond, because they con- 
tradict our pre-conceived theories, our systematic methods ? 



LIVING WORDS. 211 

Details may perplex our faith, but the grand whole 
does not. It vindicates the doctrine of the essential good- 
ness of God as seen in nature. For the harmonies of 
things appear as we explore. Order itself is beneficent, 
and that is the great fact that science discloses every- 
where. Order in the calyx of the violet, and in the 
bosom of the sun; in the braided constellations of the 
heavens, and in the drops of the summer shower. Order 
everywhere, and law ; and that law beneficence, securing 
harmony and peace, and working out steadily great ends. 



The Bible is our mirror into which faith gazes and 
beholds reflected heavenly things, — the celestial land, 
the palmy crowns, and the face of the Redeemer. It is 
our chart. We consult it when heaven is darkened and 
the shadows fall, when winds rage and waves beat, and 
rocks and whirlpools are around us, and the cold peltings 
of the storm. It is our telescope, and we see from afar 
the gates of the New Jerusalem and its crystal walls. 



There have been men who could play delightful 
music on one string of the violin, but there never was a 
man who could produce the harmonies of heaven in his 
soul by a one-stringed virtue. 



212 LIVING WORDS. 

f: Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns 
and the purple robe.'' What brought him to this? 
What led him to endure the mockery and the blows? 
What is it that stands there crowned with thorns? 
Love ! It is nothing else but love. No other power in 
all the universe but love could thus endure. Only thus 
are its exhaustless riches and its divine glory manifested. 
Only in suffering and in sacrifice can it reveal its depths. 
When all else fails, then it begins to shine. When all 
else gives up, then it commences its work, — its immor- 
tal, its triumphant work. Yes, that is love, God's love, 
that beams out from the face of Christ, — that anon will 
trickle in blood and be broken by nails. God's love ! 
It endures long, but it triumphs, and therefore in its 
greatest manifestation here upon earth was crowned with 
thorns. Christ crowned with thorns ! Can anything 
else teach us so significantly the great truth of suffering 
yet triumphant love? And love for whom? — for 
whom was that sorrow borne ? ! reader, let us not be 
dull-eyed or hard-hearted ; — for you and me it was ! ' 



The Word of God wars not with his works. Every 
new revelation of nature but strengthens the chain which 
links earth and sky, — adds to the battlements of that 
religion whose foundation is the eternal Rock, and whose 
pinnacle is bright with upper glories. 



LIVING WORDS. 213 

The true poet possesses something more than truth, 
or knowledge which is based upon truth. He must 
commune with that of which truth is the going forth 
or utterance, — the spirit that lies behind all, which is 
love. 



The cross of Christ ! It stands there. The body of 
the Redeemer has been taken away. The crowd have 
dispersed to their homes. The setting sun gilds it; the 
stars shed over it their holy lustre; and through the 
silent night it stands there an instrument of ignominy, 
and torture, and death. And when the morning light 
falls upon it the people point to it as the wood on which 
the malefactor died. But it is an instrument of ignominy 
no more. From that hour when he drew his last breath 
it became a glorious emblem, a sign of victory. Through 
the ages it stands, the guide of the sinning, the hope of 
the doubting, the rest of the weary. Through the ages 
it stands. Many suns shine upon it ; night-like epochs 
roll their starry lustre over it ; changes go on around it ; 
but there it stands, the great manifestation of truth and 
love, — the point of atonement between man and God. 
The cross of Christ ! The hosts of steel, the powers of 
human wisdom, shall roll back and be broken ; but here 
is a power that cannot be overcome, — an influence that 
reaches the heart, that exalts while it binds the soul. 



214 LIVING WORDS. 

Now when we sorrow we know who also sorrowed; 
we remember whose agony the still heavens looked upon 
with all their starry eyes, whose tears moistened the 
bosom of the bare earth, whose utterance of anguish 
pierced the gloom of night. Now, too, when we sorrow 
we know where to find relief; we learn that spirit of 
resignation, and under what conditions it may be born. 
Thank God, then, for the lesson of the lonely garden and 
the weeping Christ; we, too, may be " made perfect 
through suffering." 



The tokens of the divine beneficence are strung every- 
where, and the fundamental and comprehensive life of 
the universe shows the whole to be steeped in love ; yet 
after all Jesus Christ is the only being that gives us a 
definite comprehension of God as the Father, in all his 
personality, in all the closeness of his relation. 



Childlike is precisely the definition of the Christian 
disposition. It takes its disciples from the bustle, and 
forms, and warfare of life, and sets them down at the feet 
of Jesus as little children. And of what other religion, 
of what philosophy, can this be said : that its great object 
is to make men gentle and childlike in their dispositions ? 
We know of none. It is a peculiarity of the gospel. 



LIVING WORDS. 215 

When long the soul had slept in chains, 

And man to man was stern and cold ; 
When love and worship were but strains 

That swept the gifted chords of old, — 
By shady mount and peaceful lake 

A meek and lowly stranger came. 
The weary drank the words he spake ; 

The poor and feeble blessed his name. 

No shrine he reared in porch or grove ; 

No vested priests around him stood ; 
He went about to teach, and prove 

The lofty work of doing good. 
Said he to those who with him trod, 

" Would ye be my disciples? then 
Evince your ardent love for God 

By the kind deeds ye do for men." 

He went where frenzy held its rule, — ■ 

Where sickness breathed its spell of pain ; 
By famed Bethesda's mystic pool, 

And by the darkened gate of Nain. 
He soothed the mourner's troubled breast, 

He raised the contrite sinner's head, 
And on the loved ones' lowly rest 

The light of better life he shed. 



216 LIVING WORDS. 

Religion dwells in the depths of the heart, and beams 
with an angel-radiance from the face of the poor man, and 
drops the widow's mite into the treasury, and hallows the 
humble cottage, and lingers amid the rude arches of the 
forest ; when it is perhaps afar from the robe of learning, 
and the hypocritical righteousness of the rigid professor, 
and the golden donation of the rich, and the gorgeous 
tapestry of the temple, and the glittering ornaments of 
the altar ! Like the still small voice on Horeb, it is not 
in the tumult and the show, but in the calm of devotion, 
visiting the lowly and the humble mind. Heard not in 
the long, loud prayer, nor in the ornate and eloquent dis- 
course ; but breathing through the broken language of the 
unlettered, and heard in the simple petition of the poor, 
bowed widow, who lifts her thanks by her scanty board 
or kneels on the lowest step of the altar. 



Holding on half-way, while trying to go the whole 
way with the right, i3 very different from going on walk- 
ing with the wrong because it is expedient. 



It is exceedingly deleterious to withdraw the sanction 
of religion from amusement. If we feel that it is all in- 
jurious we should strip the earth of its flowers and blot 
out its pleasant sunshine. 



LIVING WORDS. 217 

A man that has the spirit of Christ in him has the 
spring and energy of all positive power. 



Of all the myriad leaves in the forest, there is not one 
that has not its office and its use, nor is there an atom in 
the universe which has not some chink or cranny to fill. 
So, we may believe, there is not a superfluous man, — 
one who, if he consults his aptitudes instead of his in- 
clinations, will not find that he has a call. 



Men will do things in public — as a community, as a 
party, as a nation — that they would not do as individuals, 
nor think of doing. No man would think of stealing an 
apple from a boy because he wants it ; but men would 
steal a whole island because they want it, with a mean- 
ness just in proportion to the largeness of the theft. 
Why is this ? Because men talk of an expediency in 
regard to public acts, concerning which they would not 
venture a lisp in regard to private ones, and make that 
the rule, rather than the supreme, eternal right. 



The great test by which one may know where he 
stands in God's universe is to know what he loves and 
why he loves it. 
19 



218 LIVING WORDS. 

When I contrast the loving Jesus, comprehending all 
things in his ample and tender charity, with those who 
profess to bear his name, marking their zeal by what they 
do not love, it seems to me as though men, like the 
witches of old, had read the Bible backward, and had 
taken incantations out of it for evil, rather than inspira- 
tion for good. 



In measuring the decalogue "Ve must take Christ's 
golden rule rather than the golden eagle. 



The truth beautiful ! Where in this world so beauti- 
ful as in the walk and conversation of a righteous man, a 
righteous woman? There is beautiful truth in the 
sounding, sun-lit sea ; there is beautiful truth in the un- 
dying stars ; but nowhere such a beauty of truth as in 
that pure-hearted host which do God's will; in those who 
live serving God and serving humanity. The gospel is 
a beautiful truth ; but where can we apprehend its beauty 
a3 in the life of Jesus ? 



Anything truly lives when it fills up the capacities 
of its being ; and anything is dead just in proportion as 
its faculties or functions are inoperative. 



LIVING WORDS. 219 

Poetry, in its highest essence and expression, is truth ; 
and just in proportion as it is genuine poetry it must be 
true ; it is not mere fancy or imagination. And, as the 
converse of this fact, of course it is to be admitted that 
truth is poetry; it is the grandest poetry. And men, 
when they are called upon to exercise the highest truth, 
the largest and sublimest conception they have of truth, 
either consciously or unconsciously, always burst into 
poetry. In its religio#the human mind finds ordinary 
language too stinted, and must seize upon symbols to 
express its conceptions. 



Next to the abolition of all religious ordinances there 
is nothing so ominous as a hollow and weary observance 
of them. Nay, this is even worse than violent irreligion, 
for that is too unnatural to last long, and its terrible 
earnestness will produce reaction. 



No movement is so exclusively public as to take away 
the force of individual responsibility ; — no multitude is 
so large as to absorb one's moral personality ; — but in 
the public movement, in the huge crowd, he stands as if 
he were standing alone in the universe, spiritually naked, 
listening to the judgment of God and the beating of his 
own heart. 



220 LIVING WORDS. 

TnERE never was a man all intellect ; but just in pro- 
portion as men become so they become like lofty moun- 
tains, all ice and snow the higher they rise above the 
warm heart of the earth. 



From the mountain-top where he has sat in the kin- 
dlings of the morning ; from the watch-tower where he has 
gazed into the serene, far heaven^ from the forests where 
he has communed with nature and with God, — the poet 
comes forth into the dusty, trampled highway of human 
life ; he mingles with the rushing crowd, the various, 
anxious faces, the selfish striving, the hollow friendships, 
the dry-husk religion of the world. He is not made to 
be a hermit, committing snatches of verse to the air, and 
tuning his soul to wind-harps. From the lonely truth 
he comes to the many-faced reality, — from the solitary 
communion to the eager, blended multitude. He comes 
and speaks in warm, sweet or trumpet tones, — speaks to 
the desolate and mourning, to the clogged ear and the 
calloused heart, — touches some chord that yet lives, and 
that none but the poet can reach. And the human heart 
recognizes him — the universal heart. 



No religious ship or sect would like to be responsible 
for all the barnacles and sea- weed on its hull. 



LIVING WORDS. 221 

The utterance of truth in the spirit of love is the 
poet's mission. This makes poetry. Our age is full of 
such lyrics, written on a grand scale, played upon all the 
strings of the human heart. Every noble reform around 
us is a procession, an outpealing of such sublime poetry. 
And the true poet of our age is he who sets the key-note, 
or becomes the voice or expression of this spirit of the 
times. The chains of sixty centuries are breaking ; the 
veils of night-like ages are rent in sunder, and far 
through opening valleys rich with the nodding harvest, 
and far over lofty hill-tops glad "with the rising morning, 
comes the great march of humanity set to triumphal 
music. And the true poet sees, and feels, and embodies 
this movement. He discerns below all superficialities; 
he overlooks all temporal and false landmarks ; he speaks 
to the spiritual and the unseen in man, as one who chiefly 
values that and loves it; he speaks to the world-wide 
race as one who has hope for it, and says, " Rejoice ! J5 



The " hours of communion " let in the air and light of 
heaven upon the soul. 



Seeking Heaven through righteousness is not seeking 
righteousness, but something else ; — it is not loving 
goodness for goodness' sake, but for its rewards. 

19* 



222 LIVING WORDS. 

Many people seem to think that is a revival of religion 
in which a great deal of feeling about religion appears. 
I think that is a revival of religion in which a great deal 
of thought about religion appears. And sometimes when 
men are outwardly very calm and very collected, and 
make no extravagant demonstrations, they may be really 
having an income of religious life, more than when they 
are simply occupied in expressing the sense of great 
spiritual realities by a display of feeling. We must have, 
as the basis of any noble, consistent and steady religious 
life, clear, profound, and steady thought. 



The inner life, with its thoughts, its conscience, is 
supreme. Its voice is heard above all outward tumult,— 
it projects its light or shadow upon the universe. The 
natural world is at once its instrument and its instructor. 
As we become true to our better nature — loving and good 

— so do we learn how to use the world aright ; so do all the 
ordinances of life appear to be established for great and 
wise purposes. The day is not only for labor, and the 
night for rest, but every hour and every event is that we 
may learn to trust and adore God, and to love man better, 

— may have faith in adversity, humility in success, peni- 
tence for sin, strength in weakness, and support in death. 
This is the great end of life. 



LIVING WORDS. 223 

The night comes for the purpose of checking our busy 
employment, and introducing an interval of repose be- 
tween the links of our action and our aspiration. It 
draws its dim curtain around the field of toil. It buries 
the objects of our handiwork in darkness, and involves 
them with uncertainty. It comes to the relief of the ex- 
hausted body and the tired brain. Our powers, harmon- 
izing with the diurnal revolution of the earth, fail with 
the failing light, and a merciful Providence casts around 
us this mantle of shadow, and snatches us from our occu- 
pation. The night comes and bestows its " beloved 
sleep " upon the bowed and the weary, replenishes the 
veins of health, imparts mysterious nourishment to the 
feeble, and wraps the sad in sweet forgetfulness, or bears 
them up for a time above the darkening realities of life 
into the bliss of dreams. It comes, however, not merely 
for slumber, but that there may be a change of action. 
It calls us in from those tasks that have kept in play all 
oar selfish faculties, to the delights of social communion 
and the sanctities of home. It woos the body from its 
work that the mind may take up its implements. It 
conceals the earth, which all day long has absorbed our 
desires, and reveals the grandeur of the universe in which 
we float. It shows a field of activity for the spirit as well 
as for our material powers, — a field whose capacity tran- 
scends any worldly occupation as far as thought outleaps 
the possibilities of the muscles. It bids the strained eye 



2l!4 LIVING WORDS. 

look up and perceive that there are objects of love and 
adoration above and beyond the circle of the morning 
purpose or the noonday effort. 



We give such a theological sense to our words that 
even the holiest precepts ring like counterfeit coin. But 
if we really knew that to love Jesus Christ is like loving 
anything else, — if theological or religious love would 
only mean natural love, as it ought to mean, — how 
many would say, "I love Jesus Christ" ! Infidels and 
sceptics, carping at miracles, and cutting out one half of 
the New Testament, if they could see such a character as 
that, exemplified in such a beautiful life, standing in the 
gloriousness of its meekness and the majesty of its holi- 
ness, would come to it as if drawn by the law of at- 
traction. 



Not nations, not armies, have advanced the race ; but 
here and there, in the course of ages, an individual has 
stood up and cast his shadow over the world. 



When private virtue is hazarded upon the perilous 
cast of expediency, the pillars of the republic, however 
apparent their stability, are infected with decay at the 
very centre. 



LIVING WORDS. 225 

What marvel, what mystery, what tokens of the 
divine presence, in this familiar act of slumber ! Con- 
sider into what regions of w T onder it carries you, and how 
near it brings you to God. While you lie there so un- 
conscious you are enthralled by a power which you can- 
not resist; you have surrendered to it your dearest 
possessions; you have lost all control over them; your 
limbs are impotent; your faculties are disheveled, and 
death's twin brother presses on your heart. Heroes, 
statesmen, and kings throw aside the implements of their 
pomp and power, as a child throws aside its toys, to lie 
down to rest as a child in its mother's arms. ! the 
wonderful truth is, that when we lie down to rest we all 
do lie, as it were, in a mother's arms ; for a love as tender 
as a mother's, a vigilance far more tireless, a protection 
far more gure, during the dark and silent season, is at 
work for us, keeping the delicate life-springs in motion, 
and the chords of the mind in tune. There you sleep, 
and while you rest you and your sleeping-chamber are 
borne through great segments of space into the realms of 
the dawn, — ■ into the splendors of a new morning. You 
awake, and new, fresh life rushes through every artery ; 
weariness arises, strengthened for its new labor ; poverty 
is better prepared to meet its lot of toil ; and sorrow per- 
haps lifts up its head with brighter tears, because while 
it slept angels of faith and hope whispered to it, and well- 
known faces have beamed upon it from the gates of heaven. 



226 LIVING WORDS. 

In this age our religion is too much of the combustible 
kind, — a sort of light-wood dipped in turpentine, — all 
glow, — quick up, and quick down ; and too many are 
confining their experience of religion to the experience of 
rapture and religious enjoyments. 



The dreamer with his strange and splendid conceit, 
the weary pilgrim by the convent-gate, the untired sup- 
plicant at courts, at length attains his wish. The sails 
are hoisted, the prows are turned, the great adventure 
lies before. Speed on, speed on, bold Genoese ! — look 
straight forward ! — hold dauntlessly to your thought ! 
The lights of the known land sink behind you, but the 
heritage of your fame lies before. The deep is hoary 
with mystery, the compass turns from its point, but a 
divine current sweeps you on. Your heart grows faint 
at mutiny, delay, and solitude ; but, lo ! Providence 
tempts you with its tokens. New stars rise to light 
you ; birds sing in your tattered sails ; flowers of strange 
odor drift by your keel ; and a new world is found. You 
sought it to complete the geography of the globe ; God 
opened it to complete the destiny of humanity ! 



Let no one despair so long as he has power over his 
own souL 



> 



LIVING WORDS. 227 

The idea which wrought in the minds and hearts of 
our Revolutionary heroes — in the deep current of those 
Revolutionary events-— had its sanction, and its first, 
clear, consistent utterance, as I believe, in the oracles of 
Christianity. It found a sanctuary in the breasts of its 
early saints and martyrs. It passed out into the world, 
and struck the chord of political action as it blended with 
the spirit of Teutonic independence. It flourished well 
in England, and found utterance in Parliament and from 
Tower-Hill. The cavalier bore it in his haughty con- 
sciousness to his new home in Virginia. The Hollander 
accepted it in his sturdy republicanism. The Puritan 
brought it in the Mayflower, and planted it on Plymouth 
rock. Indicated now and then by some isolated enter- 
prise or sharp event, its influence was silently engendered 
in a people's history, until at length its latent electricity 
broke out in one quick blaze from line to line, in one 
long roll of drums from Lexington to Yorktown. I find 
that idea at the core of all democracy ; I find it at the 
heart of our national organism ; and without it democracy 
would be only a name, and our nationality illegitimate. 
That idea, fellow-citizens, is the spiritual worth of every 
man ! 

In the very personality of a man, it respects that 
" image and superscription" of God which distinguishes 
him from all other beings ; respects his right — unless 
convicted of aggression against the common right — to 



228 LIVING WORDS. 

free circulation in the currency of the universe, with hU 
own limbs, mind and soul. 0, it was worth years of 
revolution, with all the suffering and the blood ! — worth 
your precious heart-drops, martyrs of Lexington ! — 
worth your cold and hunger, soldiers of Valley Forge ! 

— worth your prayers, Washington! when gloomy clouds 
hung round the tents of our Israel. It was worth all this 
to vindicate and achieve the great fact that a man is 
priceless, and that, poised on the axis of personal respon- 
sibility — - limited by nothing but the curve of moral law 

— he belongs only to God. It was worth all the cost 
and struggle to consummate a system in which, primarily, 
the man does not exist for the sake of the State, but the 
State for the sake of the man. 



The idea of the worth and right of the individual man 
lies at the core of all our institutions. Therefore when 
this idea is dishonored upon any one point the entire 
organism of our national privileges is stricken with heart 

disease. 



A TRUE individualism is not adverse but favorable to a 
true nationality. In developing the springs of personal 
worth and dignity we develop the springs of all public 

greatness. 



LIVING WORDS. 229 

Every man is two-fold in his nature. He is both 
individual and social. The necessity of a state is enfolded 
in and grows out of the very conditions of his being. 



Perilous is the course of the man who goes out amid 
the temptations of public life without prayerfulness, — 
without a sense of duty caught from communion with 
Christ. If in his own heart he has separated his politics 
from his religion, I know not from what else he may 
divorce them. 



In how many instances does it appear that high public 
office spoils a man ! Put him in Jonathan, he comes out 
Judas. He enters as a respectable merchant, or lawyer, 
or farmer, and comes out a politician by profession, and a 
thimble-rigger by practice. 



If the first line of the Declaration of Independence 
could have been read just after it was penned, in some "old 
sanctuary of dead kings, and sculptured barons, and 
drooping heraldries, it would almost have made the feudal 
dust and the aristocratic bones shake Jtnd rattle in the 
tombs, to hear th>3 gospel of a new order, in which man 
was to be recognized apart from his accidents, and held 
his titles not by inheritance but by achievement. 
20 



230 LIVING WORDS. 

The better part of our nature gravitates to him who 
preserves his courage and self-respect. There is a recog- 
nized chivalry about a man who is a man. Noble souls 
know each other, in some degree, as they will know when 
we no longer see as through a glass darkly. 



The fathers of our Revolution abolished orders of 
nobility ! No ; they affirmed the true nobility ; they re- 
jected the outward patent, and took up the inward claim ; 
they detected the right divine not in the coronet but in 
the brain, — the heraldry of honor not in the crimson 
hand but the diligent palm, and rated a man by the 
quantity of his virtue and his greatness, not by his posi- 
tion on some old genealogical tree, stuck into the body of 
William the Conqueror, with blood at the roots, and gout 
in the fibres, and idiocy at the top, unless recuperated by 
plebian sap. Benjamin Franklin wore the most appropri- 
ate court-dress I ever heard of. At the Court of Ver- 
sailles he appeared in the dress of an American farmer. 
What did he need of a court-dress whose patent of 
nobility was written for him by lightning on the clouds ? 



There is but little true learning IflTHhe nature and 
humanity have been neglected. Cumbrous and useless is 
that knowledge which is unbaptized by love and sympathy. 



LIVING WORDS. 231 

The worst scepticism of our age is not that of ex- 
pressed doubt or open denial, but that which, in the name 
of faith and zeal, would hush objection and check con- 
troversy, and is so fearful of the present as to distrust the 
futilre. 



The thinker fears no more the failure of the truth 
than he fears the failure of God's own cisterns from 
w T hich the winds blow. It may do for the ignorant to be 
timid, whom a fallacy can tangle and a false statement 
blind ; but it is for you, scholar ! to see how in the 
intense heat of trial every film of falsehood melts away 
from truth, and the severe analysis leaves it alone, in all 
the beauty of its proportion, in all the harmony of its 
relations. 



There is no tariff so injurious as that with which 

sectarian bigotry guards its commodities. It dwarfs the 

i 
soul by shutting out truths from other continents of 

thought, and checks the circulation of its own. | 



When the sky is obscured, the chart torn, the compass 
lost, man raises to his eyes the glass of faith, and sees 
through the mist the thread of love quivering clown from 
the eternal orb and drawing him on. 



232 LIVING WORDS. 

geologist ! chip away with your hammer, to the 
end of time ; — you cannot strike away one grain of the 
truth in Jesus Christ, as it comes to my soul. ethnol- 
ogist ! trace back the history of man as far as you can ; — 
you cannot seal up this spiritual want of mine wnich 
Christ satisfies. Each thing to its proper domain: sci- 
ence to interpret material things, — to unlock the bonds 
of nature ; Christianity to comfort the soul and lift it up. 
But if there does come a collision between the two, — 
which I conceive impossible, — of what have you the 
strongest evidence : that the world is six millions of years 
old, or that Jesus Christ comforts you in sorrow, lifts you 
up when you are bowed down, and brings you to an ideal 
that answers your wants and aspirations? The soul's 
evidence is the highest, and must be heard. Let Newton 
and Le Verrier unfold the starry heavens, and let us hear 
the music of the spheres ; but at the same time the soul 
stands up and says, " I, too, am a reality ; I know that I 
have a Father, for I have felt him ; I know that I have a 
Saviour, for he has lifted me up and blessed me. Science 
is doubtless true ; but if it is not I know that I am, for I 
know that I feel." 



Each thing lives according to its kind : the heart by 
love, the intellect by truth, the higher nature of man 
by intimate communion with God. 



LIVING WORDS. 233 

Christianity reaches down from heaven this golden 
ladder, by which the loftiest soul and the lowliest intellect 
can begin to climb toward God — the ladder of the truth 
of God's paternity. 



How many prayers and forms of worship are merely 
paying compliments to God from the meanest and basest 
motives, hoping thereby to creep into the favor of God, 
— complimenting him because we think it will be well for 
us to do so. 



The human soul is so constituted that mere power or 
sovereignty, without regard to the moral qualities of such 
power and sovereignty, cannot be truly reverenced. We 
may fear it ; we may cower in terror before it ; we may 
defer to it w T ith trembling and abated breath ; but the 
whole sincere reverence of the heart we can give only to 
goodness, and, in the case of God, to infinite goodness, 
which by its very nature is infinite holiness, justice, and 
majesty. 



God will not forsake you, old sinner ; he will not 
leave even you. You are cared for by him ; and though 
you may be hidden under the rubbish of all your sins, — 
though you may be cast away and scorned by men, — he 
will hunt for you as for a hidden jewel. 
20* 



234 LIVING WORDS. 

All men, however low, weak, and vile they may be, 
may utter the words, " Our Father;" and before this 
fact all outward distinctions shrivel away, and all sophis- 
tries yield to it Your pompous ethnologists, w T ho decide 
from the hue of the skin or the shape of the skull, do not 
go deep enough to mark out the limits between us. The 
dimmest asteroid of a soul, that here, in its far-away 
world, revolves in the narrowest orbit of human experi- 
ence, receives some light from the Fountain of Light, and 
feels the throb of the same infinite Sun. However rudely 
spoken — by the child at his mother's side, by the savage, 
by the poor, despised, and desolate — it is the same. How 
great that spirit must be, and how surely immortal, that 
can say to God, " Our Father " ! The nabob can say 
this, and he can say no more. The beggar in the street 
can say as much. It rises from the same plane of 
humanity. It has no further to travel, whether breathed 
in the luxurious chamber, or ascending from the lips of 
the outcast, up to the starry spaces of the sky. What a 
bond of unity, which takes the round earth, with all its sea- 
sons and climes, and condenses it into one family ! — when 
from the territories even of contending nationalities, slaves 
and freemen, rich and poor, all come together in this ! It 
is the key-note of the prelude to universal harmony. 



Truth in its most original expression is always lyrical. 



LIVING* WORDS. 235 

In the Hartz Mountains, in Germany, men sometimes 
see an awful, shadowy, colossal image walking over the 
heights like a majestic demon ; but after all they find it 
is only the projection of themselves, — only the shadow of 
the advancing man thrown upon the mist of the moun- 
tain. So men in their superstition, sensuality, and gross 
idolatry project a God who is only the shadow of them- 
selves. 



The doctrine of God the Father is the central doctrine 
of the gospel. Around it the entire system moves. Take 
it away and we should have another — a different gospel. 
Take away the truth that comes in the account of the 
prodigal son, and in other instances of that kind of God's 
fatherhood, and you may have a Christianity to preach, 
but it would not be Christ's Christianity. 



God is our Father ; and yet this relation, compara- 
tively, is as though it were not until we realize it. 



If you should take the human heart and listen to it 
it would be like listening to a sea-shell : you would hear 
in it the hollow murmur of the infinite ocean to which it 
belongs, from which it draws its profoundest inspiration, 
and for which it yearns. 



236 LIVING WORDS. 

Man is concentric : you have to take fold after fold 
off of him before you get to the centre of his personality. 
You must get below his animal nature, habits, customs, 
affections, daily life, and sometimes go away down into 
the heart of the man, before you know what is really in 
him. But when you get into the last core of these con- 
centric rings of personality you find a sense of the in- 
finite, — a consciousness of immortality linked to some- 
thing higher and better. 



If you could take away every other proof of the exist- 
ence of a God, — if you could blot out the universe with 
all its glorious elements of harmony, order, and wonder, — 
yet, looking into the deep soul of man, and beholding 
there a sense of sin, — a feeling of obligation, of duty, of 
responsibility, — you would be compelled to say, This soul 
of man proves the existence of a moral, intelligent source, 
over and above the material world. 



The nearest symbolism of God's mercy is the relation 
that the mother bears to her child. It is a constant 
blessing, which flows over our lives, and is still strong even 
when we become gray, and the dust of the grave begins 
to settle upon us. 



LIVING WORDS. 237 

Damage Revelation ! You might just as well suppose 
that a man could damage the throne of the Almighty as 
to damage the essential truth of Revelation. What dif- 
ference does it make whether this world is six thousand 
or six million years old, to the wounded spirit that feels 
the balm of Christ's comfort? — to the tempest-tossed 
soul that Christ has lifted up ? — to the spiritual experi- 
ence that sees in God its highest ideal, and mounts up- 
ward continually? There is no more connection be- 
tween the two things than there is between duty and a 
stone, — between goodness and a tree, — between a thing 
utterly spiritual and utterly material. 



The child's grief throbs against the round of its little 
heart as heavily as the man's sorrow ; and the one finds 
as much delight in his kite or drum as the other in strik- 
ing the springs of enterprise or soaring on the wings of 
fame. 



As mind is superior to matter, so are ideas more potent 
and enduring than prodigies of physical might. Archim- 
edes' thought is stronger than his lever. The mind 
that planned the pyramids was more powerful than the 
hands that piled them. The inventors of the mariner's 
compass and the telescope have outdone the Macedonian, 
and won new worlds. 



238 LIVING WORDS. 

In the act of communion with God, in the realization 
of immortality, in the aspirations and the idea of perfec- 
tion, there is a depth and scope of being from which all 
sensual estimates of time drop away. 



In proportion to the essential value and the destiny of 
anything it is slow in coming to maturity. The shining 
insect of the pools is born and perishes in a day. The 
alchemy of sun and air, of wet and sunshine, is long in 
bringing the oak to its climax. Our mortal body — this 
curious casement of the soul — grows, decays, and dies 
while a star, the home of many souls, beats around its 
orbit, and fulfils but one of its stupendous years. 

If this be the law, then we must expect that mind will 
be long indeed in coming to maturity. In fact it has 
never reached perfection, even in the rarest individual 
instances. And its inexhausted capacities, its unsatisfied 
desires, suggest what Revelation has confirmed, — that 
this is but its introductory state, and that it goes hence to 
the scope of immortal action. 



The intellect is the most neutral of all our quali- 
ties It is a light ; and no one will object to its 

being kindled except those who by that objection virtually 
confess that they fear the light. 



LIVING WORDS, 239 

Threescore years and ten ! Were all these adapta- 
tions created merely for a life of threescore years and ten ? 
Are these heavens so garnished with beauty, is this earth 
so varied and fertile, merely to gratify that which in a 
little while will die and return to dust? Is it all to 
pamper a body that presently becomes weak and diseased 
and crumbles back to its elements ? Or does this beauty 
without speak to a capacity for beauty within ? Do these 
wonderful works appeal to a power of knowing and pro- 
gressing, that shall know and progress when its mortal 
tabernacle shall be lost in the processes of change ? If 
this life is all, much is there in it that is incomprehensi- 
ble. We cannot comprehend why we should desire to 
know, and never be satisfied with knowledge ; — why we 
should be tempted and suffer. But if there is another 
life we can discern a reason for these things. In the fact 
that we attain to no complete knowledge now, but only 
such as deepens the capacity and the thirst for more, there 
gleams out the deeper fact that we shall know more by 
and by. Powers are developed here until they are capa- 
ble of higher development in other portions of God's 
limitless universe ; and suffering and temptation discipline 
the soul for a sphere where temptation shall no more be 
needed, and where the spirit shall go forward to practise 
upon what it has learned. Viewing this life, then, as the 
vestibule and preparation for another, we can account for 
many of its mysteries. But if not, why, then, does the 



240 LIVING WORDS. 

body suffer from the wants of the mind ? Why, if this 
world is merely a theatre for human fame or human 
pleasure, — merely a mart for the heaping up of gold 
and silver, — why do we think of immortality, or care for 
it ? Why do the mountain-summits seem near to another 
world ? Why from the depths of night, from worlds of 
unapproachable glory, come influences that kindle aspira- 
tions for something higher and purer? Why do we 
fancy the loved and the lost walking upon some glorious 
shore, with palms about their brows ? Why do we truly 
honor an upright nfan more than a king, and see in pa- 
tient endurance and forgiving love the highest dignity 
and the best victory? Why are prayer, and goodness, 
and faith so much more worthy in our eyes than mere 
bodily skill or beauty ? Because we do not cease to be, 
at the grave, — the outward things of this life are not our 
chief ends ; but our true end is spiritual perfection and 
immortal life ! 



I would rather fall into the hands of a good-natured 
sinner than of a sour old saint. 



The reason why men act in masses as they would not 
act in units, is, that they are not chivalric enough to 
stand by their own souls. 



LIVING WORDS. 241 

" One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas." 

It is true. There is more life in " one self-approving 
hour," one act of benevolence, one work of self-dis- 
cipline, than in threescore years and ten of mere sen- 
sual existence. Go out among the homes of the poor, lift 
up the disconsolate, administer comfort to the forlorn ; in 
some way, as it may come across your path, or lie in the 
sphere of your duty, do a deed of kindness ; and in that 
one act you shall live more than in a year of selfish in- 
dulgence and indolent ease, — yea, more than in a life- 
time of such. The poet, with his burning, immortal 
lines, while doing his work, lives all the coming ages of 
his fame. From every marble feature that he chisels 
the sculptor draws an intensity of being tfcfat cannot be 
imparted by a mere extension of years. The philanthro- 
pist, in his walks of mercy and his ministrations of love, 
lives more comprehensively than another may in a cen- 
tury. His is the fathomless bliss of benevolence — the 
experience of God. The martyr, in his dying hour, with 
his face shining like an angel's, doe3 not live longer, but 
he lives more than all his persecutors. 



This is not only the oldest but the best time. It con- 
tains the best life and fruition of all the past. 
21 



242 LIVING WORDS. 

The mother acts upon the world as surely as the boy 
develops into the man. She is not a public actor in the 
drama of human existence, but she appears in all its mov- 
ing forms, and in all its history. Her influence is the 
electric life that plays unseen amid it all, and projects 
and shapes its phenomena. That devoted philanthropy is 
the embodiment of her spirit ; — that noble achievement 
is the crystalization of her thought. The patriotism you 
admire was kindled by her tradition and her song. The 
eloquence that thrills you caught its inspiration from her 
lips. The soul that climbs the starry paths of science, 
or explores the crypts beneath, owes to her its direction 
and its enthusiasm ; and the holy life that blesses man 
and glorifies God is the answer to her prayers. Unper- 
ceived, she acts in the bustle of the mart and the aspira- 
tions of the forum, from the magistrate's chair, in the 
pulpit, and on the throne. And the ordinary mass of life, 
with its individual joys and sorrows, good and evil, so 
common, yet so important, is her result. 



All that Christ is after is the heart. Jesus went 
about as a man searching for a lost treasure. He went 
to the poor, downcast sinner, and tried to find his heart. 
If he could get that it was all he came from heaven to 
claim. 



LIVING word'?. 243 

God is glorious in everything he has made. His 
glory is revealed in the little blade of grass that begins 
to peep from underneath the winter ice; in the planet 
that flames with splendor in the heavens ; but by nothing 
so much 5 upon this earth, as in man, a creature of intel- 
ligence, of immortal capacity, of ever-growing affections 
and powers ; and in the perfection of man — in the full 
unfolding harmony and transfiguration of his nature — is 
God glorified. 



Physical force is sectional, and acts in defined 
methods. But knowledge defies gravitation, and is not 

thwarted by space Man gains wider dominion by 

his intellect than by his right arm. The mustard-seed of 
thought is a pregnant treasury of vast results. Like the 
germ in the Egyptian tombs, its vitality never perishes ; 
and its fruit will spring up after it has been buried for 
long ages. 



The man who lives merely for the purpose of pumping 
gratification out of all the world into himself, and appro- 
priating God's benefits without regard to others, is the 
meanest creature in the world, — nothing but a sponge 
with brains, sucking in everything, and letting out 
nothing. 



244 LIVING WORDS. 

To shed upon men an intellectual light — to elevate 
them by force of thought — is the noblest of all missions. 
Honor to the idealists^* whether philosophers or poets. 
They have improved us by mingling "with our daily pur- 
suits great and transcendant conceptions. They have 
thrown around our sensual life the grandeur of a better, 
and drawn us up from contacts with the temporal and the 
selfish, to communion with beauty, truth, and goodness. 
They do a great part of the work that is done. There 
must be ideas before action. The whole natural world is 
but the embodiment of ideas. The spade in the laborer's 
hand,- the plough-share in the furrow, was once an idea. 
Once the steamship was only an airy, bodiless thing, sail- 
ing through seas of thought in Fulton's mind. The 
idealist dies, but his conception lives in physical agencies 
that change the face of nature, — in moral movements 
that bless and advance humanity. 



You think it was an awful thing for Judas to betray 
Jesus. How many betray him for less than thirty pieces 
of silver ! You think it was a terrible thing for Peter to 
tell such a cowardly lie, and skulk from his master. 
How many do the same thing, when they deny their re- 
ligious faith, — when they go to places where it is un- 
popular, and shrink from avowing it, or perhaps disavow 
it altogether ? 



LIVING WORDS. 245 

Across the sweep of ages come the prophet's words, 
" Make you a new heart and a new spirit.' 5 There is 
nothing vague or mysterious about it. Change your 
affections if they are selfish ; change your aim if it is 
low ; lift up your eyes to that mark of the high calling 
to which Christ draws you, and let the spirit that was in 
him be in you. That is making a new heart. Take 
your heart with earnest purpose and fervent prayer to the 
cross of Christ, hold it up as a chalice, and let him fill it 
with his divine excellence and divine self-sacrifice, and 
then, in the possession of his quickening spirit, you will 
have a new heart. 



Reliqion is felt to be — though often very vaguely, 
very fitfully — a vital interest in the world, — something 
that cannot be voted out of the universe ; something tha,t 
will push its way, and make its claim, no matter what 
other interests are crowded on the human heart. 



Christianity is in the van of every movement march- 
ing for the deliverance of man. It rebukes and smites 
in the very face 'every sophism that would hold human 
beings in slavery. It stands for the deliverance of man 
— every body, and soul, and heart of man — from all 
evil thought and evil deeds. 
21* 



246 LIVING WORDS. 

We do not like fanaticism in anything ; but if we must 
have it at all, let us have the fanaticism of religion rather 
than that of worldliness. For the most fanatical man of 
the two is he that buries his soul up in bullion, grovels in 
the earth, and lives like a barnacle on this planet, without 
recognizing anything higher or better. I would rather 
see a fanatic in religion than in worldliness. That old 
fanatic, Simeon, who founded a sect called " Pillar Saints," 
who stood ten years on the top of a pillar, in sun and 
storm, drenched and dried, weather-beaten and baked, — 
who lived and died there, — was at least so much nearer 
heaven than the fanatic who was groping below. 



There are some who try to preserve a sort of balance 
between the spirit that makes this world supreme, which 
of course dissolves all moral distinction between right and 
wrong, and the spirit that makes God supreme, which 
claims as right the love of right only. There are some 
who wish to keep in with both these elements. They 
want the world and they want heaven. They try to live 
on both sides of the fence, and they hope to postpone the 
inevitable collision between the two forces. It is like 
compromising with a cancer, or holding negotiations with 
the yellow fever. You cannot cheat six days in the 
week, and get into heaven with a good, long leap on 
Sunday. 



LIVING WORDS. 247 

Just in proportion as we come near to Christ we do 
not create diversity, but unity. For in coming not to 
opinions about Jesus, but to Jesus himself, we come 
together. And there is the only source of opinion for 
the Christian church. Let opinions be ventilated, and 
forms of examining and finding out the truth be dis- 
cussed ; but after all the church comes together around 
the bleeding heart of Jesus, as the first church did in the 
upper room at Jerusalem. It was not opinions about his 
character — it was not schemes of salvation set forth in 
theological dogmas — that bound those twelve together ; 
but the central Christ himself. And the great church 
that streamed out from that little nucleus, through all 
ages, and in all lands, — that great church, with its 
Eoman Catholic complexity and its Quaker simplicity, 
its Unitarian freedom, its Universalist love, its Presby- 
terian assertions of the grand doctrine of God's sove- 
reignty, — whatever its peculiar form, the great church 
has its only principle of unity in that bleeding heart of 
Christ and our ability to come to him. And when you 
bring each atom of that round world of Christendom to 
that central life of Christ, you have a unity which you 
can never have by your dogmas and creeds. 



That which survives, and never dies, and triumphs in 
the end, is the right, — the true only. 



248 LIVING WORDS. 

0. now affecting is that truth — God's sympathy for 
us revealed in Jesus Christ! You look at the New 
Testament, perhaps, as an old, dry, hard boob, with 
Paul's epistles and John's apocalypse at the end of it, 
and these beautiful sayings scattered here and there 
through the gospels, but all the meaning of them worn 
out and rubbed away, because you have read them with 
such an unsympathizing spirit. If you would only take 
up the New Testament as a declaration of God's sympa- 
thy with man, — if you would realize that where Christ 
touches the blind eye there God pities human infirmities, 
where he blesses the little child there God shows his love 
for those who are so dear to us, and where he looks 
mercifully upon the debased, sensual man, there God's 
mercy is shown forth, — it would be to you a living vol- 
ume, full of regenerating power. 



The most authentic type of human depravity is a 
thoroughly unprincipled politician. 



Real homage to Christ is not in the apprehension of 
hi3 rank in the universe, but in the possession of his 

spirit Of what value are all your waving of 

palms, and high-sounding hosannas, if your hearts are not 
cast at his feet ? 



LIVING WORDS. 249 

Men may attribute the advantages of our civilization to 
this thing and that thing ; but the deep spirit of all the 
best movements of society comes from the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ. 



None occupy a more prominent and interesting station 
than young men. Th^y will immediately succeed our 
fathers in the scenes of active life, and they exert a 
powerful influence upon the country and the age. The 
aspect of the p^ent takes much of its coloring from 
them ; the hopes of the future cluster around them. 
Aged patriotism, philanthropy, piety, turn their dim eyes 
to them, and behold as in a mirror the promise of coming 
years. Their hands are already upon those golden chords 
of society which are its bonds of conservation ; and in a 
little while it will depend upon them whether they shall 
be marred or brightened, — whether they shall be pre- 
served or torn asunder. 



He cannot be the true scholar, the true thinker, who 

is not a moral, a spiritual man That which biases 

from goodness, violates conscience, and perverts the will 
cannot be favorable to true intellectual culture. Only 
by sympathy with truth and excellence can we climb to 
the knowledge of them. 



250 LIVING WORDS. 

The charter of man's liberty is in his soul, not his 

estate No piled-up wealth, no social station, no 

throne reaches as high as that spiritual plane upon which 
every human being stands by virtue of his humanity. 



What is intellectual culture worth without the moral ? 
What to us the use of poetry, hTstory, of all forms of 
knowledge, except through largeness of the intellectual 
vision to purify the heart, and to bring us to spiritual 
perfection ? Without this, knowledge w worse than an 
abstraction, and in such a case we can conceive of a 
splendid intellect only as we can conceive of a star, drift- 
ing through space without adaptation, without an orbit, 
without a centripetal law. 



Taking the material standard as the exclusive stand- 
ard of life, a man becomes a mere instrument in pursuit 
of popularity, of office, or any other worldly advantage, 
with a soul to let, and a self-serviceable conscience 
thrown in, like diplomatists that play all manner of vari- 
ations upon one selfish string, — slimy politicians who have 
wriggled through every kennel, and left their zig-zag 
trail upon most opposite measures and most inconsistent 
platforms. 



LIVING WORDS, 251 

It does not require great intellect to see plain, palpable 
facts; but marshal before a man a truth that strikes at 
his interest, and you cannot make him see it with all the 
logic you can link from the morning stars to the earth, 
because he has a different standard of valuation from 
yours. 



The highest power in the universe is moral power ; for 
the Being irho buoys up and sustains all things is a 
moral being. Once this great truth was revealed to men. 
They saw the highest power embodied in a sacred person- 
ality. It shamed the brawny grandeur of heathen Jove, 
and paled the intellectual glory of Plato. God, whose 
power is but symbolized in the material forces, the pro- 
cession of whose thought is the order and beauty of the 
universe, is in himself love, which is the synonyme of all 
righteousness. And he who would climb to the highest 
knowledge, and share something of its absolute power, 
must ascend not by intellectual formulas, but by rectitude 
of heart and affinity of spirit. 



A man that simply loads himself down with posses- 
sions of which he has no actual need, when he dies slips 
out of them — as a little insect might slip out of some 
parasite shell into w T hich it has ensconced itself— into the 
grave, and is forgotten. 



252 LIVING WORDS. 

Countless are the hosts who have yielded to the sug- 
gestion of evil lusts. Conscripts drawn by God to fight 
the battle of life, and to scale Alpine heights of duty, 
they either know not or heed not the summons, but leap 
without restraint to gratification, or lie basking in the 
sunshine of voluptuous ease. Fools of appetite ! Floats 
on the stream of impulse ! Deserters from the campaign 
to which God has called them ! How often they drop by 
the way-side, bruised and torn, — victims q| their own 
passions, — cast into the fire and the water by the devil 
within them! Spirits made a little lower than the 
angels, fallen much lower than the brute. Immortal 
souls soaked into the flesh, and sharing the corruption of 
the bones. Dying, it may be, in the streets ; and, as the 
waves of death roll over them, lifting dim eyes to the 
starry immensity above them, unconscious that it is more 
limited than their destiny, and that those lights are glim- 
mering from eternal shores, towards which they drift. 



We know how much is put on purposely for the public 
gaze, and has no other intention than to be seen. How 
hollow are many of the smiles, and gay looks, and 
smooth decencies ! And even the complexion of some, 
with its red and white, is more unsubstantial than all the 
rest; for it is in danger of being washed away by the 
first shower. 



LIVING WORDS. 253 

How many men you see in this world who have be- 
come merely the pack-horses of their own possessions; 
who go through life the veriest slaves to that which they 
toil for, wasting their health and strength, and, it may 
be, their higher powers, — even their consciences and 
souls, — in the mere effort to accumulate ! How many 
men of this sort you see stumbling along in life like a 
camel with his load ! In fact you do not see the man 
himself, — only the pack of his possessions on his back. 
He finds it hard work to squeeze through the needle's 
eye; and when he -dies he is hardly missed; for that by 
which he was known — that of which he was the slave, 
and not the master — remains behind. 



Sin is the great element of hell, and where it exists 
heaven cannot be. Its triumphs are deeper than those 
of time, and more terrible than death. It has swept over 
the moral world, more glorious than the physical, and 
blighted the beautiful and desecrated the holy. It has 
scattered abroad and afar the seeds of envy, war, lust, in- 
temperance, murder, and all abomination and iniquity. 
It has drawn man aside from innocence and rectitude, and 
he has gone forth from the joy of Eden with a bowed 
head and a burning heart; and, worse than all, it has 
spread a veil athwart his moral vision, and alienated him 
from his Maker. 
22 



254 LIVING WORDS. 

I have no great faith in the man who simply has a 
nest of habits without any guiding, settled principle ; but 
if he can build around him an inclosure of moral habits 
it will do him good. They may serve the same purpose 
as a go-cart for a little child to learn to walk by, sup- 
porting him while he is weak, until he is able to walk 
alone. 



It is not death to have the body called back to the 
earth, and dissolved into its kindred elements, and mould- 
ered to dust, and, it may be, turn to daisies, in the grave. 
But it is death to have the soul paralyzed, its inner life 
quenched, its faculties dissipated; that is death. What 
is blindness ? Is it blindness merely not to see with the 
outer eye ? Was Milton blind when he saw the angels 
of God and all the beautiful ones of the spiritual world in 
all their brightness before his soul's inner vision ? Is it 
deafness merely not to hear the outer world, w T hen you 
can hear God's voice of approval, cheering you, and the 
words, " Well done, good and faithful servant"? But 
it is deafness, and blindness, and death itself, to have all 
our moral nature utterly dissipated and wasted away. 



Ls this world or any other, the same place cannot be 
the same place to the sinner as to the saint. 



LIVING WORDS. 255 

Would the gamester unlock the springs of hisf heart 
that he has pressed down as with iron, — would he suffer 
memory and reflection to do their work, — what pictures 
of his domestic life might they paint for him ! The first 
in the series should be one of calm bliss and joy. Not a 
cloud in the heaven, save those tinged and made beautiful 
by hope ; — the eyes of love looking out upon him, — the 
dependence of a trustful heart casting upon him its all. 
Then the scene would change. A tearful and deserted 
wife, a sobbing, pitying child, keeping watch with the 
lone night-lamp, till the breaking of the morning. Again, 
and haggard misery would creep into the picture, adding 
the keenness of deprivation to the sting of grief, — press- 
ing, heavily upon the bowed, crushed spirit of that wife, 
— mingling the draught of slighted, abused affection 
with the tears of starved and shivering childhood, — 
piercing her ear at once with the moans for bread and the 
curses of disappointed brutality. Once more, and there 
should be a grave ! — a green and lowly grave — where 
the faithful heart that loved him to the last should rest 
from all its pangs, and the child that he had slighted 
should sleep as cold and still as the bosom tiaat once 
nourished it ; a grave ! where even the wide and distant 
heaven should be kinder than he, — smiling in sunshine 
and weeping in rain over those for whom he, in his mad 
career, never smiled or wept, — whom he in his reckless 
course, hurried thus early to their death. 



256 LIVING WORDS. 

Intemperance is no respecter of classes. In parlors 
and hovels, in rags and broadcloth, its dupes stumble and 
die. It strikes manly strength and beauty with untimely 
rottenness ; genius is drowned by it ; the brain-links of 
logic are broken, and the tongue of eloquence utters a 
tuneless babble. Indeed it has the art to cheat men out 
of their very personality, and to change them into mani- 
acs and fools Not only has it gained complete 

mastery over your moral sense, drowned your truest con- 
victions, and perverted your best feelings ; but see what a 
picture of humanity you present, — snoring in the bar- 
room, reeking in the gutter, grinning like an idiot, 
whooping like a savage, tumbled about like a foot-ball, 
the lines of intelligence chiseled from your face or daubed 
with blood and bruises, your lips black with blasphemy, 
your brow fanned by licentious passion, your heart dry, 
your brain hot, your memory shattered, a bankrupt in your 
limbs, a caricature of a man ! 



To every one of us God gives this terrible yet glorious 
privilege^jof doing what we like. 



That is the sublimest condition into which a man can 
come when he perfectly surrenders to God his will, and 
does what he likes because he likes to do God's will. 



LIVING WORDS. 257 

The great crises of man's existence do not consist 
primarily in changes of place, or of external fortune, but 
in changes of state or inward condition. 



"We must not think too much of death, — death's nar- 
row bridge, over which Christ walked in coronation- 
robes, — over which martyrs passed in glorious procession. 
Death in itself is a mere physical change, after all, and we 
must not make too much of it. Any experience that a 
man may have in this world or any other can hardly be 
greater than when over his dead soul there moves a 
divine influence, and in him are quickened holy aspira- 
tions; when he stirs in the grave-clothes of evil habit, 
and breaks the bands of wicked will ; when he leaps from 
the sarcophagus of sensual indulgence, and comes into 
spiritual light. When the familiar earth shines in the 
brightness of immortal sanctions, and faith tears away the 
veil of the unseen, and he realizes that he is a denizen of 
eternity and a child of God, then is there indeed a resur- 
rection from the dead. 



To me there is something thrilling and exalting in the 
thought that we are drifting forward into a splendid mys- 
tery, — into something that no mortal eye has yet seen, 
no intelligence has yet declared. 

22* 



258 LIVING WORDS. 

The old simile of the butterfly and the chrysalis I 
never thought a very forcible one, so far as it is used as 
an argument in proof of another world ; but take it in 
another view, and I think it is one of the most astonish- 
ing analogies, one of the most astonishing proofs of im- 
mortality you can furnish. The sages of the ancient 
world had about as many natural arguments for immor- 
tality as we have. The human intellect struck at an 
early period upon the great points of analogy. And 
when they took up this beautiful simile of the butterfly 
they taught a great truth ; though, I repeat, they did not 
prove the existence of another world by it, but of another 
state. Look at it ; the butterfly is in the same world as 
the worm from which the butterfly is evolved ; but, 0, 
how changed, because of the new capacities unfolded in 
its own being ! So the resurrection of man may be re- 
garded as the unfolding of inner capacities, the develop- 
ment of his spiritual being, rather than a translation to 
some distant sphere. The wings may be growing in his 
soul all the while, which shall spread when he bursts the 
chrysalis of his mortality ; and when that chrysalis bursts 
he may find himself in no strange place, but moving with 
larger powers among familiar scenes. 



The man who went as far as he dared to go is as bad 
as the man who dared to go farther and did go. 



LIVING WORDS. 259 

The essential thing in the resurrection is not the 
scenery or the method, but the uplifting of the human 
spirit from sensuality and sin. 



Clothes, rank, social position, are rags and nonsense 
compared with the essential quality and quantity of man's 
being. It is life, degrees of life, that makes the essential 
difference between men. Is not this the reward of all 
effort for truth and goodness, that we thus acquire new 
life ? The more acquaintance man gets with facts the 
more he lives ; he forms a vascular connection with them, 
and they become parts of him. He lives the past ; he is 
Plato and Newton, Shakspeare and Channing ; his mind 
sweeps the wide orbits of Saturn and Neptune, and the 
splendor of the Pleiades glitters in his thoughts. And 
the more he sympathizes with excellence the more he 
goes out from self ; the more he loves the broader and 
the deeper is his own personality ; until his life fills the 
compass of the world, and he is quickened by the very 
heart of God. 



In politics men start not from the platform of ideal and 
spiritual realities, but from party. It is the Buffalo or 
the Baltimore platform, and not that of Mount Sinai 
or the Mount of Olives. 



260 LIVING WORDS. 

TnE great fault of man's reasoning is not in the pro- 
cess, but in the premises. We say of a man that he 
cannot reason well because he is wrong in his process. 
That is not the fault: his mistake consists in his not 
starting well, — in his premises rather than his process. 
The knave reasons as well as the saint, but he does not 
start from the same premises. The insane man often 
reasons most acutely, most wonderfully. If you get into 
the stream of his logic he trips you up. So sharp, so 
subtle is he, and so ready to meet your objections, that 
you have to go back to the false premises and conceptions 
in the chinks and crannies of his brain, which weaken it 
and make it morbid. Starting from these he makes the 
mistake. The sane man differs from the insane man not 
in the process, but in the premises. And so it is with 
regard to the reasoning of men generally. They start 
from false premises, and, reasoning from them, at last 
come to the conclusion that anything they do is right. 
If they once can make themselves believe that it is right 
to uphold a certain traffic, then it is easy to come to the 
conclusion that anything by which they sustain it is right. 
If they believe they have a right to consult expediency, 
then it is but another step to believe in the right to pick 
a national pocket just as much as a private pocket, — to 
steal an island as much as to commit a trespass upon pri- 
vate propeHy. Start with wrong premises, and all man- 
ner of conclusions will follow. 



LIVING WORDS. 261 

The radical differences between men are comparatively 
few. If we classify them by temperaments, manners, de- 
grees of culture, we may draw up quite a catalogue. 
But if we let them fall into rank, according to essential 
tendencies, people wide apart in external conditions will 
file into the same group. Indeed, in the last analysis, it 
is only a truism to say that everybody is full of human 
nature. 



The essential life of heaven first breaks upon us when 
w r e rise from sense and sin and go forth with transcend- 
ent vision and unworldly aims. 



In asserting the claims of the State against the pro- 
tests of the individual conscience, it is absurd to strike 
away the ground on which rests the stability of the State 
itself, — the ground of private moral principle. It is ab- 
surd to make the State unseat the very power to which it 
appeals. The best men in community are the men who 
feel that the final ligature in our nature is that which 
binds us to God. 



A true man never frets about his place in the world, 
but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, 
and swings there as easily as a star. 



2G2 LIVING WORDS. 

True justice has regard not merely to selfish ends and 
to literal right, but to the good of others and the great 
law of love. 



Tiie profoundest fact that a man stands upon, and out 
of which he is developed, — that which constitutes the 
very sap and fibre of his manliness, — is his moral sense. 
This alone, when upright and pure, makes him a compact 
stability in society as well as in his private relations. 



Laws are nothing, institutions are nothing, national 
power and greatness are nothing, save as they assist the 
moral purpose of God in the development of humanity. 



The gospel has but a forced alliance with war. Its 
doctrine of human brotherhood would ring strangely be- 
tween the opposed ranks. The bellowing speech of can- 
non and the baptism of blood mock its liturgies and 
sacraments. Its gentle beatitudes would hardly serve as 
mottoes for defiant banners, nor its list of graces as names 
for ships-of-the-line. 



If anything is made clear in the New Testament it is 
that the best affections of this earth are not changed when 
they are translated to heaven. 



LIVING WORDS. 263 

Stand, in imagination, of a summer's morning, upon a 
field of battle. Earth and sky melt together in light 
and harmony ; the air is rich with fragrance, and sweet 
with the song of birds. But suddenly breaks in the 
sound of fiercer music, and the measured tramp of thou- 
sands. Eager squadrons shake the earth with thunder, 
and files of bristling steel kindle in the sun ; and, opposed 
to each other, line to line, face to face, are now arrayed 
men whom God has made in the same likeness, and whose 
nature he has touched to the same issues. The same 
heart beats in all. In the momentary hush, like a swift 
mist sweep before them images of home ; voices of chil- 
dren prattle in their ears; memories of affection stir 
among their silent prayers. They cherish the same sanc- 
tities, too. They have read from the same Book. It is 
to them the same charter of life and salvation ; they have 
been taught to observe its beautiful lessons of love ; their 
hearts have been touched alike with the meek example 
of Jesus. But a moment, and all these affinities are 
broken, trampled under foot, swept away by the shock 
and the shouting. Confusion rends the air ; the simmer- 
ing bomb ploughs up the earth ; the iron hail cuts the 
quivering flesh ; the steel bites to the bone ; the cannon- 
shot crashes through serried ranks ; and under a cloud of 
smoke that hides both earth and heaven the desperate 
struggle goes on. The day wanes, and the strife ceases. 
On the one side there is a victory, on the other a de- 



264 LIVING WORDS. 

feat. The triumphant city is lighted with jubilee, the 
streets roll out their tides of acclamation, and the organ 
heaves from its groaning breast the peal of thanksgiving. 
But under that tumultuous joy there are bleeding bosoms 
and inconsolable tears ; and, whether in triumphant or de- 
feated lands, a shudder of orphanage and widowhood — a 
chill of woe and death — runs far and wide through the 
world. The meek moon breaks the dissipating veil of 
the conflict, and rolls its calm splendor above the dead. 
And see now how much woe man has mingled with the 
inevitable evils of the universe ! See now the fierceness 
of his passion, the folly of his wickedness, witnessed by 
the torn standards, the broken wheels, the pools of clotted 
blood, the charred earth, the festering heaps of slain. 
Nature did not make these horrors, and when those 
fattening bones shall have mouldered in the soil she will 
spread out luxuriant harvests to hide those horrors for- 
ever. 



The essence of the gospel — its great peculiarity — is 
not in any statement of God's nature, or of man's nature, 
— of the Trinity, of the unity, of human perfectibility, of 
total depravity. The essence of the gospel is in its spirit 
of restoring, of long-suffering, of inexhaustible love, claim- 
ing its objects, waiting for them, and welcoming them at 
the last. 



LIVING WORDS. 265 

Fancy yourselves standing on the banks of the Dela- 
ware more than a century and a half ago. The winds 
have stripped the leaves from the primeval forest, save 
where the pines lift their dark drapery to the sky. The 
river travels silently on its way. All around lies the 
solitude of nature, unbroken by the wheels of traffic or 
the triumphs of civilization. Apart from the roar and 
the conflict of nations, - — apart from the hurrying tides of 
interest and passion, — this lone spot in the western wil- 
derness, beside the calm river, is a spot for peace and love, 
— a spot where the children of humanity may come, bury 
their war weapons, and embrace. Lo ! it is that spot. 
An instance of brotherly love is displayed here, such as 
the world had not seen since the clays of the Redeemer. 
From the recesses of the forest there glides a file of red 
and naked men, wild in their strength, and uncurbed in 
all the native impulses of humanity. As they cluster 
beneath the arching elm, or brood in dusky lines along 
the wooded back-ground, their eyes glisten with the fires 
of their fierce nature, and here and there a hand grasps 
more closely its weapon: yet in the grave silence and 
studied repose the old men bend forward their scarred 
faces, and the young incline their ears to hear. He who 
stands up to speak to them is a white man, unarmed, and 
almost companionless, yet in his mein there is neither 
hesitation nor fear, and his face, where mildness sweetly 
23 



266 LIVING WORDS. 

blends with dignity, banishes the suspicion of deceit. 
Consider him well ; for in the-truc record of his life his 
name is enrolled higher than those of heroes. Bred up 
in all the amenities of life, he has come to try a "holy 
experiment" in the depths of the wilderness. Trained in 
various learning, he feels that love is the best knowledge 
and the best language. Unawed in sculptured minsters, 
unfettered by ordinances, he calls the great earth a 
temple, and finds in all the humanities forms of worship. 
Unbending before kings, he reverences the rudest savage 
as a man. Rejecting human creeds, his soul is full of 
the gospel. Guided by the "inner light, J? the law of 
conscience and of truth, the Indian's rights are sacred as 
the white man's, and he asks no force to aid him but the 
force of love. And as he utters those simple words of 
peace and justice, those savage bosoms grow warm with 
the Christian law, those glittering eyes melt w T ith charity, 
around those dusky circles throbs the pulse of the one 
humanity, and the panther of the forest becomes as the 
lamb. The child of the red man clasps the hand of the 
white stranger, the belt of wampum is made a beautiful 
symbol, and the words of solemn promise go forth, — the 
winds lift them higher than any shout of victory, the 
woods repeat them far inland, and the Delaware bears 
them rolling by, — "We will live with William Penn 
and his children as long as the sun and the moon shall 



LIVING WORDS. 267 

endure." It was an honest compact. It was a bloodless 
conquest. It was the triumph of peace and right. The 
historian records it with a glow. The philanthropist 
quotes it, and takes courage. The Christian remembers 
it, and clings with new faith to the religion that accom- 
plished it. 



" First pure, and then peaceable.' 7 That is the great 
order of things ; for there is no peace without purity ; 
and a man cannot effectually make peace in the world 
unless he is at peace in himself; and he cannot be at 
peace in himself unless he is pure and right within. 



Can you conceive of anything that so represents the 
glory, and truth, and marvelousness of God's nature as the 
idea of peace ? When you come back to your best evi- 
dences, what would constitute the beatitudes of the divine 
nature but peace and harmony at the centre of all things, 
— undisturbed fulness of life? 



As in the family circle the return of the wanderer — 
his penitent and willing return — is received with a burst 
of gladness, so the return of the sinful to truth, to holi- 
ness, to God, fills all heaven with bliss, and thrills with 
joy angelic hearts. 



268 LIVING WORDS. 

As when one has been shut in some gloomy room; 
some tainted, sick chamber, some dark, narrow enclosure, 
and gets out into one of these glorious spring days of open 
nature, and the broad arch of heaven spreads over him like 
a benediction, and the wind breathes upon him like a new 
life, and all the harmonies of nature multiply and gather 
around him, so one goes out from the narrowness of 
human conceit, and the perplexities of human discussion, 
and little mean bigotries of human conclusions, into the 
broad, free atmosphere of Jesus Christ. It always has 
that effect upon me. It comes upon me like a breath of 
nature, to turn away from the distracting discussion of 
men, the little pin-point differences, the mean, dark ? 
gloomy bigotries that creep over religious discussion, and 
to come to Jesus Christ, who uttered the Sermon on the 
Mount, who gave me the beautiful parabla of the sower 
going forth to sow, who teaches me by the suggestion of 
the vineyard, who points to the wild bird flying through 
the air, and the lily clothed in raiment more splendid 
than that of Solomon. 



The trumpet of God is blown against evil, and it is 
only a question of time. The black night-hawks go 
swooping under the Southern cross to strike their beaks 
into bleeding Africa, but they will fail as surely as night 
is smitten by God's morning. 



LIVING WORDS. 269 

Never did any man, who comes to it rightly, go away 
from the New Testament with anything like a gloomy 
thought. With shame, penitence, and a solemn sense of 
life — with a quickening of that which is deepest and 
brightest in us — we go away ; but never with anything 
like gloom from the teachings of Jesus Christ. 



Jesus Christ is the reflection of the divine love". 
There is nothing tender in him who blessed little chil- 
dren, — there is nothing lovely in him who walked so 
kindly among the sorrows and wrongs of humanity, — 
there is nothing that attracts us to the heart of him who 
sat at the marriage-feast in Cana, who mingled with the 
poor and suffering, who cleansed the leper and raised the 
dead, — there is nothing in all that love that draws us 
to him that is not in the Father's nature. If we only 
could see God's love, and realize it as expressed in Jesus 
Christ, we could not help longing for it, and praying that 
such, according to the finite capacity of our nature, might 
be the essence of our spiritual being. 



Our post is not the Mount of Vision, but the Field of 
Labor ; and we can find no rest in Eden until we have 
passed through Gethsemane. 

•23* 



270 LIVING WORDS. 

In a mother's heart there is a love that cannot be 
altered and exhausted, and that will claim that abandoned 
sinner when he comes back. So in the Infinite bosom, 
and in the bosoms of all heavenly beings, there exists the 
same love. The spirit that sent Jesus Christ on earth is 
that spirit. The purpose of Christ's mission is to de- 
clare that spirit. That is the peculiarity of the gospel 
over and above everything else. Precisely* where man's 
faith falls and man's hope falters is it that the gospel 
becomes clear and strong. It is not the announcement 
of the doctrine of evil to the sinner, and good to the 
saint. That doctrine might stand upon any basis, even 
the basis of worldly morality. But it is the announce- 
ment of the doctrine of a good that will forgive the sinner, 

— that will watch over its objects, wait upon them, and 
welcome them at last. That is the sublime originality, 

— that is the practical power of the gospel. And this 
sympathy is a sympathy that prevails among the purest 
and best beings of the universe ; that is the point. It is 
not in proportion as a man is a sinner that he sympathizes 
with the sinner, but in proportion as a being is pure and 
unsullied is there a sympathy, not for the sin, but for the 
sinner, which is deep and lasting. 



Life itself suggests a higher good than life itself can 
yield. 



LIVING WORDS. 271 

I see nowhere in nature the personal God. I see a 
God of law, a God of order, a God whose footsteps are 
marked in all the bright stars which sprinkle the heavens, 
whose work is seen in the characters of the long-finished 
ages beneath my feet, all moving orderly, calm, splendid, 
cold, austere. I recognize God in every grass-blade that 
springs up to-day, in every star that travels in glory ; but 
it is the God of order, the God of law ; a God who is as 
near to the butterfly that flits with embroidered wings as 
to you and me ; a God who cares as much for the gilded 
wheels of Mars or Uranus as for the tribes of suffering, 
weak, wounded humanity. But when I come to Jesus 
Christ, I find a father ; I find not only a God of law, but 
a God of love. I find not only an abstract, general God, 
but a personal God. I find not only a God who cares in 
general beneficence for the forms of outward nature, but 
who has a peculiar care for humanity, who looks to it as 
to his own image, and sees something in it to become 
more like him, to rise nearer and nearer to him, and wear 
more gloriously his likeness. I behold a Father who goes 
forth continually, striving to bring humanity to himself; 
seeking for the poor, lost sheep; searching for the lost 
piece of silver ; yearning over each man, — the poorest, 
the lowest, the vilest. ! God's love, God's personal 
contact, God's fatherhood, I find in Jesus Christ, and 
there alone ! You know that the men who have uttered 
the sublimest strains of philosophy, who have given us 



272 LIVING WORDS. 

the wisest codes of morals, have never stood in this posi- 
tion. It is Christ alone who has given us the truth of 
humanity and the truth of God, and who has given us an 
illustration of it. 



As it is in nature so it is in the Bible, — the great 
truths are on the surface. They are not for scholars 
only. It would be preposterous, would it not, to suppose 
that God gave a revelation to man bearing upon his high- 
est duty and destiny, and then made it so that only schol- 
ars and learned men could comprehend it, — something 
we must shovel after w r ith our dictionaries and lexicons, — 
delving into ecclesiastical history to get at the great sav- 
ing truths of the gospel ? 



I would not dare to preach if I did not have confidence 
in the Love that is watching over us, — if I thought I 
was the minister of some awful power or mystery. If 
I thought that I must carry to dying beds and to scenes 
of mortal need only the great dark shadow of mystery, I 
could not preach. It is because I think I have to speak 
of infinite love, — of love greater than we can fathom, 
broader than we can compass, more full than we can ex- 
press ; because I feel that there is a power back of the 
humble words which I speak to flow into the hearts of 
men and lift them up. 



LIVING WORDS. 273 

The best commentary upon the New Testament is the 
New Testament itself. The best way to understand it is 
to go right with your naked human heart and soul to it. 
Christ speaks the people's language. He speaks not only 
to the people of Judea eighteen hundred years ago, but 
to the people of America now. And to every needy heart 
his language is plain and simple. While the Pharisees 
saw something to cavil at, and the Scribes to abuse, the 
common people heard him gladly, and the common heart 
felt him and owned him ; and so spontaneous did it become, 
at last — so did their sense of the duty of recognition 
swell — that at last it burst through all bounds, and they 
scattered their palms, and strewed their garments, and 
thundered their hosannas, in the acknowledgment of 
Christ's authority and his truth. 



When you can jam a man up against a great fact of 
life, and ask him, How now? — what does this teach 
you ? — what does that say, man ! to the deep heart 
within you ? — what does that speak to the aspiring, 
thirsty soul ? — When you can do that, there is power in 
preaching ; and if it is only the leaf of the lily or the 
wing of the wild bird, it has infinite power the moment it 
presses home the great reality of the truth which it con- 
tains, 



274 LIVING WORDS, 

As Christ passes before us — as he rides through the 
ages — as his glory "with every advancing year culminates 
in new operations of his spirit, and new demonstrations of 
his truth — he compels from us such an acknowledgment 
as that which poured from the lips and waved from the 
palm-branches of the people on the road to Jerusalem. 



As he rides through the ages, a vaster throng — far 
more vast than that which gathered around him upon the 
slope of the Mount of Olives — gathers about him,' — a 
great multitude that no man can number : the morally 
blind, whose eyes have been opened; the spiritually deaf, 
who have been made to hear ; the worse than physically 
dead, who have come into newness of life ; tearful mourn- 
ers, who have felt the greatness of his powers and the 
peace he has conferred; poor, crushed hearts, who have 
known the balm of his consolation; all who have been 
touched and have been blessed by Jesus Christ, swell the 
long retinue, and give homage and honor to his name. 
"Wherever the church-bell rings out to-day — wherever it 
touches the hearts of men with any suggestion or any 
meaning — there is truly a Palm Sunday, not of outward 
offering, but of inward homage, just as men can appreci- 
ate the real greatness of Christ, and know what he has 

done for them, and what he has done for the world. 
* 



LIVING WORDS. 275 

We do not need simply to think and feel about Christ 
upon the Mount of Olives, -when the world lies beneath 
us, and the great Jerusalem of traffic, strife, and tempta- 
tion, yonder. We want to honor Christ by our action 
down in the streets of Jerusalem, — right down in the 
mire, toil, dust, and heat of daily traffic ; in the midst of 
the selfish worldliness of life. We want something of 
that kind ; not merely a swell oyer a congregation of the 
thought of his sorrows, sufferings, and agonies, that passes 
away like a gust of wind. We want to honor him, not 
as he rides in pomp, or as he is presented before us in a 
point of rhetorical attraction, but as he walks down in the 
Jerusalem of daily life* 



The Christ of our youth, — a personage standing mild 
and beautiful upon the gospel-page, — a being to admire 
and love ; how he develops to our later thought ! — how 
solemnly tender, how greatly real he becomes to us, when 
we cling to him in the agony of our sorrow, and he goes 
down to walk with us on the waters of the sea of death ! 



Down below all the crust of human conceptions, of 
human ideas, Christ sank an artesian well into a source 
of happiness so pure and blessed that even yet the world 
does not believe in it. 



27G LIVING WORDS. 

No such words as those of Christ have come from any 
other source in this world. No such words from any other 
creature have been wafted upon the stream of ages. There 
are no passages which mean so much, — which open into 
such unfathomable depths. There are none which so ex- 
pand in their nature, — which so meet the most vital 
wants of man. There are none which shed such light 
upon the great problems of existence. There are none 
which are at once so divine and so human, — presenting 
the exact balance of duty, and guiding the doubtful feet. 
There are none which, so marked with the file of the ages, 
keep ahead of all human achievements and ideals. There 
are none which are so full for the thoughtful man, and 
yet so fitted to the little and the ignorant. There are 
none which so strike upon the deep malady of sin. There 
are none which so enter into, and lift up, and give rest to 
the sad, and heavy, and weary heart. 



The work of modern chivalry is the work of humanity. 
Not a work such as called the old chivalry to battle for 
the Holy Sepulchre, but a work for the help and uplift- 
ing of those for whom He who triumphed over the sepul- 
chre died ; not taking the shape of that sentiment which 
"groined cathedral isles." but a work for that which is 
more truly God's temple, and which his spirit fills. 



LIVING WORDS. 277 

There is no condition in life of which we can say ex- 
clusively " It is good for us to be here." Our course is 
appointed through vicissitude, our discipline is in alterna- 
tions ; and we can build no abiding tabernacles along the 
way. 



The multitude had been so long used to the dry, 
husky, technical teachings of the Scribes and Pharisees 
that when they heard the Sermon on the Mount they 
drew a long breath, and said, " Never man spake like 
this man; " and no one ever did. Why? Because he 
saw radical truth everywhere. He took a little lily, 
growing in the summer light, and what a missal of divine 
glory it became ! — what a lesson of God's goodness ! He 
saw the bird steering its way through the air, and it be- 
came at once an illustration of Divine Providence. He 
took nothing but a grain of mustard-seed, and the whole 
kingdom of God was involved in it. Wherever he turned 
his eye he found central and radical truth, and struck out 
of it something right before the people that they could 
take hold of. Now, my friends, this is the power of all 
effective preaching. It comes home to the heart from 
realities. 



There is an entire magazine of working forces in that 
one great law, — " Love thy neighbor as thyself." 



24 



278 LIVING WORDS. 

I HAVE no fear of the power or of the influence of the 
pulpit so long as it applies God's truth boldly and freely ; 
so long as the old prophet utterances of past ages are 
borne from it or breathed through it ; so long as the true 
apostolic descent which comes from the soul's serving God 
and being baptized in the spirit of Christ is represented 
in it. I have no fear of the power, or efficacy, or stand- 
ing of the pulpit. I have no fear of the true respect that 
will come to the preacher so long as the people are con- 
vinced that he is loyal to his own convictions. There are 
tens of thousands of people now, who rather dislike that 
the preacher should teach his own convictions, who would 
dislike him ten times more if he did not do it. If they 
thought he was truckling and squeezing down upon the 
pressure of public opinion, although fhey might approve 
his actions, and call him a judicious man, they would be 
disgusted with him. There is no power left to the 
preacher the moment you think he is not uttering his real 
convictions. When you think he is trimming his sails, 
has his eye upon the public, and cares more how the 
people receive his doctrine than what he shall say, there 
is no more respect for him. Those preachers, although 
they may be called conservative, wise, and prudent, never 
will move the public heart or do God's work. 



Modest expression is a beautiful setting to the diamond 
of talent and genius. 



LIVING WORDS. 279 

On the wall of the Vatican, untarnished by the pas- 
sage of three hundred years, hangs the master-piece of 
Raphael, — his picture of the Transfiguration. In the 
centre, with the glistening raiment and the altered coun- 
tenance, stands the Redeemer. On the right hand and 
on the left are his glorified visitants ; while, underneath 
the bright cloud, lie the forms of Peter, and James, and 
John, gazing at the transfigured Jesus, shading their 
faces as they look, Something of the rapture and the 
awe that attracted the apostles to that shining spot seems 
to have seized the soul of the great artist, and filled him 
with his greatest inspiration. But he saw what the 
apostles at that moment did not see, and in another por- 
tion of his pictur£ has represented the scene at the foot 
of the hill, — the group that awaited the descent of Jesus, 
The poor possessed boy, writhing, and foaming, and 
gnashing his teeth, — his eyes, as some say, in their wild, 
rolling agony, already catching a glimpse of the glorified 
Christ above ; the baffled disciples, the cavilling scribes, 
the impotent physicians, the grief-worn father, seeking in 
vain for help. Suppose Jesus had stayed upon the 
.mount, what would have become of that group of want, 
and helplessness, and agony? Suppose Christ had re- 
mained in the brightness of that vision forever, — himself 
only a vision of glory, and not an example of toil, and 
sorrow, and suffering, and death, — alas! for the great 
world at large, waiting at the foot of the hill ; — the 



280 LIVING WORDS. 

groups of humanity in all ages : — the sin-possessed suf- 
ferers : the cavilling sceptics ; the philosophers, with 
their books and instruments ; the bereaved and frantic 
mourners in their need ! 

So, my hearers, wrapped in the higher moods of the 
soul, and wishing to abide among upper glories, we may 
not see the work that waits for us along our daily path ; 
without doing which all our visions are vain. We must 
have the visions. We need them in our estimate of the 
world around us, — of the aspects and destinies of human- 
ity. There are times when justice is balked, and truth 
covered up, and freedom trampled down ; — when we 
may well be tempted to ask, " What is the use of trying 
to work?* 7 — when we may well inquire' whether what 
we are doing is work at all. And in such a case, or in 
any other, one is lifted up, and inspired, and enabled to 
do and to endure all things, when in steady vision he be- 
holds the ever-living God, — when all around the injus- 
tice, and conflict, and suffering of the world, he detects 
the Divine Presence, like a bright cloud overshadowing. 
! then doubt melts away, and wrong dwindles, and the 
jubilee of victorious falsehood is but a peal of drunken 
laughter, and the spittings of guilt and contempt no 'more 
than flakes of foam flung against a hero's breast-plate. 
Then one sees, as it were, with the vision of God, who 
.1 down upon the old cycles, when a sweltering waste 



LIVING WORDS. 281 

covered the face of the globe, and huge, reptile natures 
held it in dominion; — who beholds the pulpy worm, 
down in the sea, building the pillars of continents ; — so 
one sees the principalities of evil sliding from their 
thrones, and the deposits of humble faithfulness rising 
from the deep of ages. Our sympathy, our benevolent 
effort in the work of God and humanity, how much do 
they need not only the vision of intellectual foresight, but 
of the faith which, on bended knees, sees further than the 
telescope ! 



We should not quit the world to build tabernacles in 
the Mount of Transfiguration, but come from out the 
celestial brightness, to shed light into the world, — to 
make the whole earth a cathedral ; to overarch it with 
Christian ideals, to transfigure its gross and guilty fea- 
tures, and fill it with redeeming truth and love 

Nay, even for the Redeemer, that was not to be an abid- 
ing vision ; and he illustrates the purport of life as he 
descends from his transfiguration to toil, and goes forward 
to exchange that robe of heavenly brightness for the 
crown of thorns. What if Jesus had remained there, 
upon that Mount of Vision, and himself stood before us 
as only a transfigured form of glory ? Where, then, 
would be the peculiarity of his work, and its effect upon 
the world ? 

24* 



2S2 LIVING WORDS. 

Peteb and his fellow-disciples were called to follow 
Christ not that they might sec visions, but were permitted 
to see visions that they might follow Christ. It was well 
that they should see their Master glorified, that they 
might be strengthened to see him crucified. It was well 
that Moses and Elias stood at the font when they were 
about to be baptized into their apostleship of suffering, 
and labor, and helping finish the w T ork which these glori- 
ous elders helped begin. But that great work still lay 
before them, and to rest here w T ould be to stop upon the 
threshold : — to have kept the vision would have thwarted 
the purpose. Upon a far higher summit, and at a far 
distant time — with fields of toil and tracts of blood be- 
tween — would that which was meant as an inspiration 
for their souls become fixed for their sight, and taber- 
nacles that should never perish enclose a glory that should 
never pass away. 



No father's love, no mother's affection for a child, is 
greater than God's love for it. And if in a moment of 
darkness — of a succession of sad crushing calamities — we 
are disposed to doubt God's love, — if we are disposed to 
murmur at his dispensations, — interpret him by yourself, 
father ! mother ! — interpret his love by your love ; 
and remember that you, the stream, cannot care more for 
that child than he, the fountain and ocean of all love. 



LIVING WORDS. 283 

In order to see our business in its highest relations we 
must get above its level. If we -would make it subserv- 
ient to religious ends and to the moral law we must 

descend into it with superior influences The man 

who makes his business the noble symbol of a true life at 
times goes apart from it. The divine refreshment which 
he carries with him into the heat and burden of the day, 
and with which he keeps his aim elevated and his vision 
clear, he imbibes not in the market or the street, but 
from mountain-heights of thought and well-spring, of 
prayer. Let him show his religion in business, but let 
him use the means that he may find a religion to show. 



That religion has done very little work that has 
merely made a man feel easier, happier, and better con- 
tented in life. It ought to arouse a man up. You know 
the anecdote of Louis and Massilon. After Massilon 
had preached rather an agitating sermon, I suppose, Louis 
sent for him. " Massilon, 7 ' said he, "you have offended 
me." — "That is what I wished to do, sire," said the 
preacher. And I would not give a cent for a minister 
who did not offend two-thirds of his congregation, at times, 
— arouse them up, — smash against the conscience of the 
bigot, and balk party prejudices, and touch the secret sin, 
which, if they do not confess, they still feel. 



284 LIVING WORDS. 

If we might adapt God's nature at all to our poor 
human conceptions, we should feel that even waves of 
gladness must go over the infinite sea of his nature at the 
exercise of mercy, and that even he, in his unapproach- 
able greatness and infinity, feels something of that joy 
which runs through all heaven at the exercise and ex- 
hibition of mercy. 



Perhaps the most restless being in the world is the 
man who need to do nothing but keep still. The old 
soldier fights all his battles over again, and the retired 
merchant spreads the sails of his thought upon new ven- 
tures, or comes uneasily down to snuff the air of traffic, 
and feel the jar of wheels. I suppose there is nobody 
whose condition is so deplorable, so ghastly, as his whose 
lot many may be disposed to envy, — a man at the top 
of this world's ease, — crammed to repletion with what is 
called " enjoyment ; " ministered to by every luxury, — 
the entire surface of his life so smooth with completeness 
that there is not a jut to hang a hope on, — so obsequi- 
ously gratified in every specific want that he feels miser- 
able from the very lack of wanting. 



I DO not know of any other church standard than this : 
the life of Christ — the spirit of Christ. 



LIVING WORDS. 285 

Who can adequately describe the triumphs of Labor ? 
It has extorted the secrets of the universe, and trained 
its powers into a myriad forms of use and beauty. 
From the bosom of the old creation it has developed 
anew the creation of industry and of art. It has been its 
task and its glory to overcome obstacles. Mountains 
have been levelled and vallies exalted before it. It has 
broken the rocky soil into fertile glebes, it has crowned 
the hill-tops with fruit and verdure, and bound around 
the very feet of ocean ridges of golden corn. Up from 
sunless and hoary deeps, up from the shapeless quarry, 
it drags its spotless marbles, and rears its palaces of pomp, 
It tears the stubborn metals from the bowels of the globe, 
and makes them ductile to its will. It marches steadily 
on, over the swelling flood and through the mountain 
clefts. It fans its way through the winds of ocean, tram- 
ples its hoarse surges, and miDgles them with flakes of 
fire. Civilization follows in its path. It achieves 
grander victories, it weaves more durable trophies, it 
holds wider sway than the conqueror. His name becomes 
tainted, and his monuments crumble ; but Labor converts 
his red battle-fields into gardens, and erects monuments 
significant of better things. It writes with the lightning. 
It sits crowned as a queen in a thousand cities, and sends 
up its roar of triumph from a million wheels. It glistens 
in the fabrics of the loom, it rings and sparkles from the 
steely hammer, it glows in shapes of beauty, it speaks in 



28G LIVING WORDS. 

s ' of power, it makes the sinewy arm strong with 
liberty, the poor man's heart rich with content, and 
crowns the swarthy and sweaty brow with honor, and 
dignity, and peace. 



Considered in its broadest sense, Labor is the chosen 
sphere of God himself, through which he continually 
manifests his attributes, and which testifies to his glory. 
In the great field of the universe he has wrought from 
the beginning until now ; and beneath his instant control 
creation is ever at work in all its parts, and in its great 
whole, from the ducts and valves of the human frame, to 
the motions of the solar system, and the mazy circles of 
the firmament. It is the price of all attainment, the ap- 
pointed medium of all true power. Men may exist and 
not work, but without it they lack the essential vigor of 
life, — they exist as the sponge on the rock, or the weed 
by the wall. Without the braced action of the brain or 
the muscles, ornament covers only emptiness, and wealth 
encircles only feebleness ; while there is no sovereignty 
like that which is born of resistance and achievement, 
there is no sceptre like the strong and cunning right 
hand. 



The purest people are the most charitable. All noble 
natures are hopeful. 



LIVING WORDS. 287 

The Christianity of our age is not merely the Christi- 
anity of the cathedral or the cloister, but of the machine- 
shop and the sidewalk ; it sets the pulpit over against the 
shrine of mammon, and, as it were, upon the deck of 
every vessel that goes steaming out to sea. It does not 
favor merely a little number, in exclusive sanctity and 
consecrated form; it sends out its messengers into the 
streets and lanes, the highways and hedges, and the poor, 
the lame, the dumb, the blind feel the breath of sympa- 
thy, and come creeping their way into its blessed light. 
Earnest men are actually finding their way to the 
Christian faith through the working of Christian utility. 
They discover what Christianity is out in the broad life 
of practical action, when that life has long since ebbed 
away from the shells of creeds, and left only its wave- 
mark on the strata of tradition. 



A city is, in one respect, like a high mountain ; the 
latter is an epitome of the physical globe ; for its sides 
are belted by products of every zone, from the tropical 
luxuriance that clusters around its base to its arctic sum- 
mit, far up in the sky. So is the city an epitome of the 
social world. All the belts of civilization intersect along 
its avenues. It contains the products of every moral 



zone. 



288 LIVING WORDS. 

I will tell you where there is power : Where the 
dew lies upon the hills, and the rain has moistened the 
roots of the various plants ; where the sunshine pours 
steadily ; where the brook runs babbling along ; there is 
a beneficent power. 



The great saints — the men whose names stand high- 
est in the calendar of the church universal — are not the 
ascetics, not the contemplators, not the men who walked 
apart in cloisters; but those who came down from the 
Mount of Communion and Glory, to take a part in the 
world ; who have carried its burdens in their souls, and 
its scars upon their breasts ; who have wrought for its 
deepest interests, and died for its highest good; whose 
garments have swept its common ways, and whose voices 
have thrilled in its low places of suffering and of need ; — 
men who have leaned lovingly against the world, until 
the motion of their great hearts jars in its pulses forever ; 
men who have gone up from dust, and blood, and crackling 
fire ; men with faces of serene endurance and lofty self- 
denial, yet of broad, genial, human sympathies ; — these 
are the men who wear starry crowns, and walk in white 
robes, yonder. 



Gayety is often the reckless ripple over depths of 
despair. 



LIVING WORDS. 289 

" Swear — curse Christ/' said the proconsul to Poly- 
carp, " and I release you." — " Six-and-eighty years have 
I served him/' replied the venerable disciple, "and he 
has done me nothing but good ; and how could I curse 
him, — my Lord and Saviour ? " His was a vision that 
pierced the barriers of the grave, and saw far beyond the 
principalities and powers of the earth. Above the mar- 
tyr's fire hovered a glory beneath which the splendors of 
this world grew dim, and his dripping garments turned 
to coronation robes. The dreadful amphitheatre swam 
away from before his sight, the ranged spectators faded, 
the pinnacles of the celestial city gleamed upon him ; and 
he saw the angels casting down their crowns ; he saw mar- 
tyred Stephen with his beatific face, and the long line of 
prophets, who before him had gone up from the ordeal of 
blood ; and amidst the taunts and the accusations, and 
before the open jaws of death, he was able to " rejoice," 
yea, to " be exceeding glad." 



Do you want proof of immortality ? If you do not 
feel it ; if your heart and consciousness do not tell you 
of it ; if some great fact of life has not brought it to you, 
— some great loss — the open grave of some friend, or the 
consciousness of some limitation against which you chafe 
and beat, — if that does not bring immortality home to 
you you will never be convinced of it. 

25 



290 LIVING WORDS. 

Christianity is not a religion of details. It is not a 
religion of codes, precepts, maxims. It is a religion of 
great principles, all imbued with the self-sacrificing life 
of Christ Jesus. Away with your nonsensical sophistries, 
that Christianity did not meddle with the social institu- 
tions of its time, — that it did not meddle with the wrongs 
of its time. It meddled with them just as the acorn 
meddles with the barren soil when it sends up the oak ; 
just as the seed meddles with the superincumbent earth, 
as it quickens slowly and surely and sends up its harvest. 
No ; Christ said nothing against the priests and doctors 
of the law. He did not challenge their authority. But, 
by and by, somehow, men who took from the life of 
Christ stood up before the priests and magistrates, and 
said, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken 
unto you rather than unto God, judge ye. Though 
Christ did not say a word about democracy; though 
Christ did not speak against Caesar, but says, Bender 
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; though he did 
not challenge the right of kings, — yet somehow kings' 
crowns haye grown dim ever since Christianity came into 
the world. I have no doubt there were many tons of 
Christianity in the hull of the Mayflower, and its text was 
written large in the Declaration of Independence. Christ 
said nothing ; but every text he uttered was a grain of 
gunpowder, to crack, and shatter, and establish the life ; 
because it is life and not death ; it is spiritual in form ; 



LIVING WORDS. 291 

and it works its way, slowly but surely accomplishing 
its ends. 



The baffled hopes of our mortal state, — what are they 
but vain strivings of the human soul, out of the path of 
its highest good? The wandering bird, driven against 
the branches, and beaten by the storm, flutters at last to 
the clear opening by which it mounts above the cloud, 
and finds its way to its home. This life is not ordained 
in vain; — -it is constituted for a grand purpose, if 
through its lessons of experience we become convinced 
that this life is not all. 



If we look upon the future state merely for its outside 
garments of white, and its crowns of gold, — its privilege 
of running from star to star, and being here and there, — 
we degrade our conception of it. If we think of it as a 
nobler state of soul, — a rising spirit, an inlet of moral 
light, of moral power, — then we get the grandeur of the 
future state; for that is its essential element. Come 
crowns of glory, if God gives them, — raiments of white, 
and grand palm-branches. I know not what the scenery 
of that state may be ; but I know that the most blessed 
element of that state is a spirit like the spirit of Jesus 
Christ, who lived and died that we might live. 



292 LIVING WORDS. 

Whatever is inevitable is beneficent. Whatever lies 
in the constitution of nature or the order of Providence, 
and not in the scope of human agency, we may believe is 
essentially wise and good. The law of growth and decay, 
in its comprehensive operation, unfolds a benevolent de- 
sign. The autumn-phase of nature is but. one form of an 
ever-streaming life, — a preliminary of reproduction ; and 
the falling leaf is not only a herald of winter, but a 
prophecy of spring. When we look at it aright we detect 
the same good power, the same beneficent agency at 
work, stripping the branches of the forest and blighting 
the grass, as that which scatters enamelled glories 
through the meadow, and unlocks the babbling brook. 
And though here the operation of this law comes more 
plainly into the scope of our vision, and more rapidly un- 
folds its intent, we see the benefit of its working even in 
wider circles and in grander forms. The earth on which 
we dwell holds a record of the same great law. Here, in 
these " sunless deeps," have been changes inconceivably 
vast, wrought out with flood and flame. Here lie effigies 
of being long since passed away ; — the medallions of suc- 
cessive dynasties set in solid stone. And as with the 
falling leaf, so with vanishing epochs, each buried form 
has been the seed of a higher life, — each changing state 
the preliminary of nobler conditions. So with nations, 
with empires, — the elements of human progress, the 
Providential ends of history, have been served in their 



LIVING WORDS. 293 

decline and fall, no less than in their rise. A richer 
growth of civilization has sprung up in their ruins, and 
their perished forms have made room for ampler institu- 
tions to embody nobler ideas. And no doubt in whatever 
shape we trace this process, could we detect its profound- 
est purposes, and grasp all its relations, we should still 
discover beneficence and beauty. The mere light of 
nature shows such glimpses, even in that stern fact which 
troubles us so much — even in death. It is not without 
its natural explanations and comforts. When it comes in 
what appears its due season it seals up worn-out powers, 
and gives release from decrepitude and pain. The old 
man is as a withered leaf, and death gently removes a 
fixed incapacity, a worn-out usefulness, in which the juices 
of life are all stagnant, or mixed, it may be, with unfit 
prejudices, and gives room for the vigor, the new thought, 
the fresh and more timely action of another generation. 
And sweet and kindly are all the appliances of nature : 
kindly the film that gathers over the failing eyes, the 
touch that softly stops the weary heart ; sweet the clods 
into which moulders the mortal dust, the sky that bends 
over it, the flowers that deck, the dews that consecrate it, 
as it mixes with the larger elements, and, may be, " turns 
to daisies in the grave." 



The public sense is in advance of private practice. 
26* 



294 LIVING WORDS. 

I WILL tell you what to me is one of the strongest proofs 
of an immortal life. It is a true, good, blessed life, in this 
world. I see a man, a woman, a child, or a friend living 
a life of purity, of love, of holiness, — aspiring continu- 
ally to something higher and better, putting aside every 
weight of evil, overcoming temptation, rising above guilty 
passion, becoming pure and refined ; and in such a person 
immortality becomes to me an assurance. Now, of all 
beings Jesus Christ stands before me as the emblem of 
purity of such excellence that immortality becomes to me 
a possibility and an assurance. And thus, in the personal 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, we get a strength of convic- 
tion that we could not derive from abstract reasonings. 
That is the value of historical Christianity. That is the 
value of a personal Jesus. 



Nothing- is more grand than man's relation to spirit- 
ual beings, — than the fact that the universe is filled 
up with blessed intelligences. I do not need to see 
them, or hear them, to be convinced of this fact. I 
know by surer sight than the eye, by more certain hear- 
ing than the ear, that they exist: I know it by my 
vital consciousness of a God and of a heaven. And 
Christianity interprets that fact. It shows man, poor, 
wretched, vile as he may be, linked with these innume- 
rable relations. 



LIVING WORDS. 295 

Whatever in the system of things is inevitable is 
beneficent. The dissolution of these bonds comes by the 
same law as that which ordains them ; and we may be 

sure that the one, though it plays out of sight, and is 

i 

swallowed up in mystery, is as wise and tender in its pur- 
pose as the other. It is very consoling to recognize the 
hand that gave in the hand that takes a friend, and to 
know that he is borne away in the bosom of Infinite Gen- 
tleness, as he was brought here. It is the privilege of 
angels, and of a faith that brings us near the angels, to 
always behold the face of our Father in Heaven ; and so 
we shall not desire the abrogation of this law of dissolu- 
tion and separation For who is prepared at any 

time to say that it was not better for the dear friend, and 
better for ourselves, that he should go, rather than stay ; 
— better for the infant to die with flowers upon its breast 
than to live and have thorns in his heart ; — better to 
kiss the innocent lips that are still and cold than to see 
the living lips that are scorched with guilty passion ; — 
better to take our last look of a face while it is pleasant 
to remember — serene with thought, and faith, and many 
charities — than to see it toss in prolonged agony, and 
grow hideous with the wreck of intellect ? And as spirit- 
ual beings, placed here not to be gratified, but to be 
trained, surely we know that often it is the drawing up 
of these earthly ties that draws up our souls ; that a great 
bereavement breaks the crust of our mere animal con- 



296 LIVING WORDS. 

seriousness, and inaugurates a spiritual faith ; and we are 
baptized into eternal life through the cloud and the 
shadow of death. 



What do the grand capacities of our nature, always 
hungering and thirsting, and never satisfied, signify? 
What does this conviction of man, that burns like a lamp 
in the darkness of the shadow of death, and will not hear 
of such a fact as annihilation, signify? What does all 
that achievement of the human races, of ever higher at- 
tainment, its constant development of a higher ideal, sig- 
nify ? Such a mind as that just gone out in Europe,^ 
casting a light upon so many other minds ; who has kin- 
dled within us some of the grandest intellectual concep- 
tions; who has written books which, however false in 
detail, yet, as a presentation of English history, — as 
bringing before us, in the grand gallery of the past, the 
noble, wise, and beautiful forms, — will live as long as 
the English tongue lives; — what means a mind like 
that, soaring up out of time and sense, in the midst of a 
glorious work all unfinished, and standing, like some of 
those old cathedrals, with half the towers down ; — what 
means all this aspiring, unfinished capacity, if the tra- 
dition of scepticism is true ? 

* Lord Macaulay. 



LIVING WORDS. 297 

A great peculiarity of the Christian religion is its 
transforming or transmuting power. I speak not now of 
the regeneration which it accomplishes in the individual 
soul, but of the change which it works upon things with- 
out. It applies the touchstone to every fact of exist- 
ence, and exposes its real value. Looking through the 
lens of spiritual observation, it throws the realities of life 
into a reverse perspective from that which is seen by the 
sensual eye. Objects which the world calls great it ren- 
ders insignificant, and makes near and prominent things 
which the frivolous put far off. Thus the Christian, 
among other men, often appears anomalous. Often, 
amidst the congratulations of the world, he detects rea- 
sons for mourning and is penetrated with sorrow. On 
the contrary, where others shrink he walks undaunted, 
and converts the scene of dread and suffering into an ante- 
chamber of heaven. .... Jesus himself weeps amid tri- 
umphant palms and sounding hosannas, while on the cross 
he utters the prayer of forgiveness and the ejaculation of 
peace. 

No wonder, then, that the believer views the ghastliest 
fact of all in a consoling and even a beautiful aspect, and 
death itself becomes but sleep. Well was that trait of 
our religion which I have now suggested illustrated at 
the bed-side of Jairus' daughter. Well did that noisy, 
lamenting group represent the worldly who read only the 
material fact, or that flippant scepticism which laughs all 



298 LIVING WORDS, 

supernatural truth to scorn. And well did Jesus repre- 
sent the spirit of his doctrine and its transforming power 
when he exclaimed, " She is not dead, but sleepeth." 

Yes, beautifully has Christianity transformed death. 
To the eye of flesh it was the final direction of our fate, 
— the consummate riddle in this mystery of being, — the 
wreck of all our hopes, — 

" The simple senses crowned his head ; 
Omega ! thou art Lord, they said ; 
We find no motion in the dead." 

Ever, though with higher desires and better gleamings, 
the mind has struggled and sunk before this fact of decay, 
and this awful silence of nature ; while in the w T aning light 
of the soul, and among the ashes of the sepulchre, scepti- 
cism has built its dreary negation. And though no 
mother could lay down her child without taking hints 
which God gave her from every little flower that sprung 
on that grassy bed, — though the inexhausted intellect 
has reasoned that we ought to live again, and the affec- 
tions, 'more oracular, swelling with the nature of their 
great source, have prophesied that we shall, — never, 
until the revelation of Christ descended into our souls, and 
illuminated all our spiritual vision, have we been able to say 
certainly of death, it is a sleep. This has made its outward 
semblance not that of cessation, but of progression, — not 
an end, but a change; — converting its rocky couch to a 



LIVING WORDS. 299 

birth-chamber, over-casting its shadows with beams of 
eternal morning, while behind its cold unconsciousness 
the unseen spirit broods into higher life. 



I am just as sure of spiritual things through the facul- 
ties of my soul, as interpreted by Christianity, as ever 
Newton or Humboldt were sure of material things through 
the faculties of the brain and senses, interpreted by sci- 
ence. Scepticism stands on no basis at all, only as it 
stands on that of the senses, and they themselves are veri- 
fied in their last result by consciousness alone. 



Everything around us shows a plan and a purpose ; 
outward nature is orderly and harmonious, moves steadily 
to certain ends; and we cannot suppose that humanity, 
and all the spiritual relations with which humanity is in- 
volved, — that this is any more disorderly ; we cannot 
suppose that in any department of God's working there is 
an aimlessness of purpose, of end, of plan ; and if not in 
the material w T orld, much less in the moral world and the 
realm of human action. 



Induction is simply confidence in the integrity of 
nature. 



300 LIVING WORDS. 

Though many powerful appeals, many solid argu- 
ments, cannot break our affections from this earth, the 
hand of a departed child can do it. The voice that calls 
us to unseen realities, — that bids us prepare for the 
heavenly land, — that says from heights of spiritual bliss 
and purity, " Come up hither,' ' — that voice is the voice 
that we loved so on earth, and gladly can we rise and fol- 
low it. Behold, then, what a little child can perform for 
us, through its death ! It makes real and attractive to 
us that spiritual world to which it has gone, and it calls 
our affections from earth to that true life which is the 
great end of our being, which is the object of all our 
discipline, our mingled joy and suffering here upon earth. 
That little child, gone from its sufferings so early, — 
gone, 

" Gentle and undented, with blessings on its head," — - 

has it indeed become a very angel of God for us, and is it 
calling us to a more spiritual life, and does it win us to 

heaven Then shall we behold already the wisdom 

and benevolence of our Father breaking through the 
cloud that overshadows us. Already shall we see that 
the tie, which seemed to be dropped and broken, God 
has taken up to draw us closer to him, and that it is in- 
terwoven with his all-gracious plan for our spiritual profit 
and perfection. And we can anticipate how it will all be 
reconciled, when his own hand shall wipe off our tears, 



LIVING WORDS. 301 

and the bliss of reunion shall extract the last drop of bit- 
terness from " the cup that our Father hath given us*" 



The grand sweep of science^ in this day 5 is all pressing 
toward the conviction that there is one central plan at the 
heart and core of the universe ; and it is beautiful, out of 
these diverse operations in the various fields of human 
thought, to see the unity toward which men are tending. 
Take that one idea of typical forms, that a whole class of 
animals is constructed upon a single plan, so that you find 
in the paddles of the whale, the long fingers of the bat, 
and the hoof of the horse exactly the same bones and out- 
lines that you find in the arm of a developed man ; show- 
ing that God has worked upon a great plan, and a 
beautiful proof not only of the unity but of the existence 
of God : for what complicated means man has to use to 
attain his ends, even in his highest mechanical achieve- 
ments, while God takes one simple plan, and behold the 
diversified results that come out of that simplicity ! 



It is a mistake to consider marriage merely as a scheme 
of happiness. It is also a bond of service. It is the most 
ancient form of that social ministration w T hich God has 
ordained for all human beings, and which is symbolized 
by all the relations of nature* 



302 LIVING WORDS. 

You cannot put your hand on a plant or a stone, or 
upon anything, and say this is an end in itself. It is 
serving some other end. It is a great conduit in God's 
processes. It is a medium through which God works. 
Dig down into the bowels of the earth, and there are in- 
strumentalities which have done their work, — which 
have served to bring about the present result. So every- 
thing now is a process, helping God's work onward, — an 
agent, an instrumentality, tending to some result w r e do 
not yet see. 



Out of our joy and our acknowledged good the Su- 
preme Disposer works his spiritual ends. But especially 
how often does he do this out of our trials, and sorrows, 
and so-called evils ! Life is God's plan ; not ours. For 
often on the ruins of visionary hope rises the kingdom of 
our substantial possession and our true peace ; and under 
the shadow of earthly disappointment, all unconsciously 
to ourselves, our Divine Redeemer is walking by our 
side. 



Eloquence is a kindling process, and it is always diffi- 
cult for a speaker to make an impression upon an audience 
who feel more than he does. When the locomotive is fired 
up, and snorting for a start, it is useless to attempt to 
pump more steam into the boiler from a tea-kettle. 



LIVING WORDS. 303 

The greatest successes grow out of great failures. In 
numerous instances the result is better that comes after a 
series of abortive experiences than it would have been if 
it had come at once ; for all these successive failures in- 
duce a skill which is so much additional power working 

into the final achievement The hand that evokes 

such perfect music from the instrument has often failed 

in its touch, and bungled among the keys Every 

disappointed effort fences in and indicates the only pos- 
sible path of success, and makes it easier to find. We 
should thank past ages and other men, not only for what 
they have left us of great things done, but for the herit- 
age of their failures. Every baffled effort for freedom 
contributes skill for the next attempt, and ensures the day 
of victory. .... Disappointment is the school of achieve- 
ment, and the balked efforts are the very agents that help 
us to our purpose. 



The Apostle's injunction, " Let no man think of him- 
self more highly than he ought to think," implies that 
there is a certain lawful limit of self-esteem. In short, 
humility really contrasts with no great and good thing ; 
only with a folly which is as transient as it is giddy ; with 
a pride which forgets the Almighty ; and with that liquid 
self-satisfaction which, in a universe of unlimited progress 
and possibility, affronts both God and man. 



304 LIVING WORDS. 

The sheep are not always led through green pastures. 
The path is sometimes bestrewn with craggy rocks ; some- 
times over precipices. Sometimes the storm hangs dark, 
the whirlwinds blow, the hail cuts, and the lightnings 
flash. But keep near to the Shepherd, — keep on up- 
ward through the darkness. The storm will pass away, 
the rugged path will end, and the Lord who is our shep- 
herd will lead us at last into the green pastures and be- 
side the still waters. 



Tribulation does not come in as something that walks 
upon us " like a thief in the night." It is part of God's 
plan. Nobody can read this universe in its comprehen- 
siveness, or take up life in all its parts, without believing 
that trial of some kind is a part of the plan of God in the 
ordering; of our lives. 



That shock * rent the surrounding air, and scattered 
death through that terror-smitten group, and startled a 
nation. But it did not rend the serene vault of heaven, 
nor shake the planets from their courses. Even thus 
around all forms of evil lie infinite depths of love, and 
infallible wisdom weaves the vast cycle of destiny. 

• The explosion on the steamer Princeton, 1844. 



LIVING WORDS. 305 

Amid surrounding gloom and waste, 

From nature's face we flee ; 
And in our fear and wonder haste 

nature's Life ! to thee. 
Thy ways are in the mighty deep ; 

In tempests as they blow ; 
In floods that o'er our treasures sweep ; 

The lightning, and the snow. 

Though earth upon its axis reels. 

And heaven is veiled in wrath, 
Not one of nature's million wheels 

Breaks its appointed path. 
Fixed in thy grasp, the sources meet 

Of beauty and of awe ; 
In storm and calm all pulses beat 

True to the central law. 

Thou art that law, whose will thus clone 

In seeming wreck and blight. 
Sends the calm planets round the sun, 

And pours the moon's soft light. 
We trust thy love ; thou best dost know 

The universal peace ; 
How long the stormy force should blow, 

And when the flood should cease. 

26* 



306 LIVING WORDS. 

And though around our path some form 

Of mystery ever lies, 
And life is like the calm and storm 

That checker earth and skies, 
Through all its mingling joy and dread, 

Permit us, Holy One, 
By faith to see the golden thread 

Of thy great purpose run. 



It would be a sad thing if, when we had arrived at the 
conclusion that the universe works by law, we should 
stop there. Law is a very bleak thing to us. Law has 
a very disconsolate relation to us. But what does law 
imply ? A purpose ; — a lawgiver. And when by a law 
of this life calamity comes upon^you, think that there is a 
Lawgiver above the law. Whatever may be to you a 
problem and a dilemma, there is One solving it out, and 
the very perplexity in the case is, that your eyesight is 
narrow, — that you cannot see all God's plans. 



Let every man be free to act from his own conscience ; 
but let him remember that other people have consciences 
too ; and let not his liberty be so expansive that in its 
indulgence it jars and crashes against the liberty of 
others. 



LIVING WORDS. 307 

0, sublime, glorious faith for faltering, disappointed 
man to fall back upon ! — that Almighty God sits at the 
helm of the universe, and steers the mighty ship through 
all ages ; that his will is sure to be done ; that the ordinance 
that has gone from his mouth will not he balked ; that 
before the brightness of his glory all darkness will pass 
away ; that before the infinitude of his love and goodness 
all evil will come to an end, and in due time he will regu- 
late the earth to his purpose, and gather together in one 
all things in Christ Jesus. 



Do we feel that we are unworthy because we are 
totally depraved, — because there is no good in us ? I 
don't know why a man should feel bad about that. He 
can't help himself any more than an insect can imprisoned 
in a stone. 



When we undertake to embark in a great work it will 
not do to depend upon ourselves alone ; we must feel that 
we are placed at our post but for a day, and that there is 
One who steers the ship, who guides the event, and will 
bring it out all right, though we may not behold it in our 
day or generation. Our duty is to be diligent at our post, 
but to trust to One who is over and above us, and who 
will accomplish his purpose in his own good time. 



SOS LIVING WORDS. 

To say that because of wild fanaticisms and absurdities 
the whole mechanism of religion is all superstition would 
be to say that the white mist at Niagara indicates only a 
mist, instead of bearing witness to the awful depth of the 
torrent-sweeps that are below. So out of the soul of man 
comes the mists of superstition ; but, instead of proving 
that the whole is superstition, they prove the awful depth, 
the legitimate flow of the great God-given, God-kindled 
love that is in the heart of man. 



We have not the innocence of Eden ; but by God's 
help and Christ's example we may have the victory of 
Gethsemane. 



On the burnt Avail of one of those churches,^ beaming 
distinct and clear through all their defacement and de- 
lapidation, stand these words: "The Lord seeth." It 
is a great truth which through all the convulsions of 
time and the revolutions of men has blazed athwart the 
everlasting heavens. It is a truth not only to rebuke but 
to encourage us with the thought that the great Over- 
ruler is merciful, weaving often his beneficent schemes 
under clouds of blackness and storm. 

* After the riot in Philadelphia, 1844. 



LIVING WORDS. 309 

You never can upset religion. It is one of the grand, 
prominent faculties of human nature. That is demon- 
strated. It is one of the most foolish acts of folly in the 
•world to talk of religion as some superstition that is going 
to pass away in time, and of a period that will arrive 
when all men shall depend merely on their brains for 
what human nature wants ; and when all religion will be 
looked upon just a3 strangely, and with just as much 
ridicule, as we now look back upon the most groveling 

superstitions of the world But man's everlasting, 

deep experience contradicts all that ; for there are times 
when, out of something that is more profound and more 
radical than reason or intelligence, breaks forth the 
deep, earnest prayer, "Lead me to the rock that is higher 
than I ! " 



If there are sounds that we do not understand, sights 
that we cannot explain, how do we know that those 
sounds come from any superior spheres, or that those 
sights are spirit presentations? It is a mere adjudication 
and verdict of the senses. Man has something within 
him deeper than the senses, which demands in a revela- 
tion something that authenticates itself to that deeper 
faculty within him; and therefore strange sounds and 
sights would not be a satisfactory form or process of 
revelation. 



310 LIVING WORDS. 

Tiie glory of Christianity is not merely the lifting up 
of those who are low to that which is high, but the com- 
ing down of that which is high to that which is low; 
strength ministering to weakness, purity to impurity, 
holiness to sin, God to man. That is the great pecul- 
iarity of Christianity, — the revelation of the condescen- 
sion of God. 



Mercy : — that is the gospel ; — the whole of it in one 
word. There are great truths gloriously beaming around 
the horizon of that revelation forever ; mighty sanctions 
are there to inspire us and to lift us up ; but the essence 
of the gospel is its mercy. It is a revelation of exhaust- 
less love and power unto man ; the brightest light in the 
darkest spot; the greatest condescension in the lowest 
estate : the holiest brought to the basest ; the all-pure to 
the deeply sinful. 



How r many look upon a Presbyterian, to-day, as a man 
who is all blue-fire and bitterness, and who looks upon 
the world and humanity at large just as Jonathan Ed- 
wards did ! And on the other hand, how many people 
think that a Universalist believes that, " Live any way 
you please, you'll land in glory the moment you die"! 
NoWj is it not a shame indeed that one should not know 
better what the other believes ? 



LIVING WORDS. 311 

Mercy is the essence of all love. The mother of the 
little child at first feels strange instincts in her heart. 
Her love has taken no form other than that of mercy to a 
little helpless being cast upon the heaving billows of her 
own bosom. If you find a family where there is a poor, 
little, weak child, it is beloved more than all the rest. 
If you want to love your fellow-men have mercy on 
them. "When even an enemy comes before you, and all 
power to hurt you is gone, you can forgive and love him. 
And so I suppose we may say that the love of God for 
poor, weak man is mercy for him. Guilty, sinful, de- 
graded as he is, the infinite mercy throbs for him. Lov- 
ing mercy is the spring of all right feeling, as doing 
justly is of all right being. 



Sling a lexicon and the Bible at the head of every 
Universalist and Unitarian you find, if you choose. But 
how dare you break open the sanctity of his heart ? How 
dare you judge his soul, and say that because you think 
there is a veil between his reason and his right judgment, 
therefore God has no access to his heart, and he has never 
been baptized with the spirit of Jesus Christ? Is not 
this saying, " Because I am right in opinion, Univers- 
alist and Unitarian ! I am better than you. You are a 
poor, miserable, and morally depraved being, because you 
are intellectually wrong' 7 ? 



312 LIVING WORDS. 

I don't ask a man to fellowship my opinions, nor to 
fellowship me personally. Perhaps such a fellowship 
would be as disagreeable to me as to him. I might find 
it as inconvenient and as unpleasant to be associated with 
him as with a lump of burning sulphur or a lump of ice. 
But no man has the right to disfellowship me or any other 
man from Christ Jesus our Lord, because of what he 
deems to be a falsity in my intellectual conceptions of 
Christ, — imperfections in my verbal statements of Christ. 
There is no man, from the Pope down to the humblest 
Christian, that can make that assumption for any man 
that walks upon the face of the earth. 



Ostentation is the signal-flag of hypocrisy. The 
charlatan is verbose and assumptive ; the Pharisee is 
ostentatious, because he is a hypocrite. Pride is the 
master-sin of the devil; and the devil is the father of 
lies. 



There is the large-souled brother, who preaches in 
Brooklyn, and who will permit every honest man to call 
him brother, however much he may differ in opinion from 
him : — why, his great heart, at every pulsation, leaps 
sixty degrees beyond the logical limits of his creed. 
" The voice is Jacob's voice," " though the hands are the 
hands of Esau." 



LIVING WORDS. 313 

The larger the nature the larger the love. Little, 

mean natures are uncharitable natures The man 

that always has a hopeless, sarcastic sneer for his fellow- 
men, — who is in perpetual fear that he will be cheated 
by them ; — look out for that man. But the man that 
hopes or trusts, though none sees the evil more keenly 
than he ; the man who sees something brighter than the 
sin, — who sees the light shining around all ; — that man 
has a noble nature, — a larger and more persistent love. 



There is less misery in being cheated than in that 
kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, 
that all mankind are cheats. 



That son of infamy is still a man, though his manhood 
is crushed and disfigured ; he is still the offspring of God, 
not unwatched by him, not outside the circle of his help. 
Why, then, should you and I cast him off, and stand aloof? 
Daughter of shame ! representative of discrowned woman- 
hood ! as that pure and pitying heaven stretching over 
thy alien head does mercy regard thee, — with sorrow, 
yet with trust, — as one in whom the sanctities of thy 
nature have not all perished ; as one for whom, through 
the blackness and the fire, and through penitent tears, 
there is yet redemption. 
27 



314 LIVING WORDS. 

HUMANITY is so constituted that the basest criminal 
represents you and me. as well as the most glorious saint 
that walks on high. We are reflected in all other men ; 
all other men are embodied in us. 



" We have known and believed the love that God has 
to us." What is it we know and believe? A fact that 
is unalterable ; not a theological conclusion which would 
make God love for the saints, and not for all. Right or 
wrong, saint or sinner, here it stands, that God is love. 
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God so 
loved — what ? So loved the Jews ? So loved the pecul- 
iar Christian? So loved this man or that? No; " God 
so loved the world." Hear it, narrow theologians, with 
your cramped notions of God Almighty's grace : God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to die 
for us. The primary fact is love, and it is beyond all 
human recognition or acceptance of that love. 



Humility is not a weak and timid quality. It must 
be carefully distinguished from a groveling spirit. There 
is such a thing as an honest pride and self-respect. 
We should think something of our humanity, and not 
cast it under men's feet. Though we may be servants 
of all, we should be servile to none. 



LIVING WORDS, 315 

Christianity was a revelation, — not a revolution. 
Christ came to show us what eternally was ; not to make 
an alteration in God's economy. He came to show us an 
eternal fact, which man did not comprehend; not to alter 
the nature of God's government, or the aspect of God 

toward man God loves man, and loved him from 

the foundation of the world ; and out of the springs of this 
love came forth all the phenomena of Christianity, and all 
the vehicles of his grace. 



What is that announcement of love whioti shines in 
the gospel ? ! it is the expression of God's love for 
the sinful, his care for the cast-a-way, his reaching out 
for the far-off, his pleading with the obdurate, his calling 
the prodigal to come to his arms. It is the proclamation 
of God's sympathy with all that is human, — his care and 
love for it, his searching for it through Christ Jesus, like 
the shepherd for his lost sheep, or the woman for the lost 
piece of silver; it is the consorting of Christ with the 
poor and depraved outcast, while he turned away from 
the formal, and self-righteous, and respectable, — his going 
among those that were far away from the right and the 
truth ; — it is this which makes the peculiarity of the gos- 
pel. It is this which is its divine power. It is all con- 
firmed and all explained in the Apostle's declaration that 
God is love. 



31G LIVING WORDS. 

max ! when that Christian truth blazes in upon 
your mind, through the mists of the darkness of your 
Bin, in the blind groping in your own evil ways; when 
the love of God streams in upon you like the light of the 
morning ; when your whole soul wakes up to it, and you 
surrender to that love, and know it, and by it are regene- 
rated and brought into new relations to God ; — that is 
religious life. They may cram a creed upon you ; they 
may try to bind you up in ceremonies and ligatures, 
to lead you to the true church. That consecrated cord 
binds you to the great living heart of God, and makes it 
vital to yon. That is the passport to heaven, and the 
essence of religion. 



It is the privilege of true souls to believe and know 
the love God has to them. It is the sadness of sinful, 
guilty souls that they do not know and do not believe the 
love God has to them. 



So long as you are conscious enough of evil propensi- 
ties, of bad passions, to think of them even as an antag- 
onist, — so long as they loom up here and there, suggesting 
evil, — so long have they some sort of victory over you. 
But when you rise into the pure impulse of moral affec- 
tion, which sets you to gravitating and sweeping toward 
the right, evil has lost all power over you. 



LIVING WORDS. 317 

Who but woman — when Judas betrayed, and Peter 
denied, and the weary slept, and the fearful fled — could 
summon energy to linger around the cruel and despised 
spot, to mingle the tears of pity with the blood of suffer- 
ing. Who but woman, when man turned coward, and 
his trust grew faint, could stand until the last by the dy- 
ing Saviour, and then go to trim the lamp of her devotion 
at the door of his sepulchre ? 



If we are not sure of God's love we are sure of nothing. 
If this is not the central truth in God's universe we know 
nothing of God or the immense realities which surround 
us. If this is not true, welcome any theory, any creed, 
any form of faith. But if it is true all things fall into 
their proper order, and nature has its interpretation, which 
we are encouraged to pursue to the utmost limits. His- 
tory has its explanation ; and in the darkest crisis, when 
the hearts of men fail for fear, — when nationalities crack, 
— when conflicts arise, — when the earth rends and the 
heavens darken, — we have no fear of him who sends over 
all the arching bow of promise, and guides the nations in 
the working of his unfailing love. 



There is often a way of warring with the wrong which 
is as unconsecrated and as bad as the wrong itself. 

27* 



318 LIVING WORDS. 

Christ demands something more than public and 
formal honors. To-day he will be honored in I know not 
how many churches. There is a grandeur in the old 
Roman Catholic service that, when you take the mere 
poetry of it, heaves a man up almost above this world. 
And to-day, all round the globe, from the white-crowned 
Andes to the hot plains of Africa, millions and millions 
will be chanting the same great theme, and in spirit, as it 
were, casting palm-branches before Christ. There will 
be a great acknowledgment of his name and his dignity ; 
but how much of him, after all, in the heart, — how much 
real life-surrender and loyal service ? He does not want 
merely public and formal honors, such as come from the 
rituals of churches, - — a traditional and ceremonial ac- 
knowledgment — but that of the heart. 



Every man has at least this gift, — this one charge to 
keep : his own soul to take care of and look after. High 
or low, rich or poor, God endows him with that. ! no 
coronet that in his providence he sets upon the brow of a 
king ; no weapon that in the course of events is put into the 
hands of a conqueror ; no gift of eloquence, or poetry, or 
philosophy, or science that moves the world, is to you so 
great, and in God's sight so essential and so important, as 
your own soul, with its immortal destinies, with its limit- 
less capacities, with its deathless affections. 



LIVING WORDS. 319 

Men show their respect for the Bible by bringing it 
into courts of justice, making a statute-book of it, and 
reading it before judge and jury. Why don't you make 
it the oracle that will prevent such acts as lead to courts 
of justice? Why don't you cherish it in the private 
sanctuary of the soul, adulterer and murderer ! — 
man in the evil hour of temptation! Why don't you 
read it, and make it an oracle there ? 



All the distinctions that are thrust upon you do not 
prove that you are living as a true man. They may 
prove quite the contrary. 



Terrible is the electric force which thunders through 
space and blasts all opposition ; but stronger still is that 
affectionate magnetism — that unseen heart of nature — 
whose pulses mix with all things, and that draws all 
things into beautiful obedience to its law. It is an over- 
whelming energy with which a comet sweeps along its 
track ; but it is not so great as that which holds the plan- 
ets to their centre, and binds them in glittering harmony 
forever. And this is the ultimate power, — the power 
of being, rather than of doing. A majestic repose, a 
silent strength, is the highest mood of nature. 



320 LIVING WORDS* 

It seems to be thought that the essential quality which 
constitutes a Christian is a kind of phantom excellence, 
which keeps in the back-ground of life, or glides timidly 
among its realities ; and that if a man is going to grapple 
with this tough, old, dusty world, and hammer his way 
through it, and get anything out of it, he must do it by 
dint of the earth-spirit that is in him. This is all a mis- 
take. On the contrary, the fibres of all real manliness 
are in Christian discipline ; and a good deal which passes 
for power in the world — this blustering, passionate en- 
ergy — is essentially weakness There is always a 

greater mastery evinced in the control than in the exer- 
cise of power Chaos is a condition of unrestrained 

forces ; order is a condition of forces held in obedience to 
law. And so it is with that world which every man car- 
ries within himself, — his moral or spiritual nature. Tho 
angry man may evince more energy than he who keeps 
calm in the heat of provocation ; but evidently the latter, 
who gives not way to passion — who controls it — is the man 
of most power. Again, we may call that man a master- 
spirit of his age who rides on the whirlwind of popular 
sentiment, and even directs it ; but he is stronger who re- 
sists the spirit of his time ; who stands up and steadily 
bears against it ; and who, firm in his conviction of princi- 
ple, cannot be carried away by all the tides of faction. 
The one merely yields to pressing facilities ; the other has 



LIVING WORDS, 321 

to exert moral nerve and resist them. Indeed, all vehe- 
mence and impetuosity is a quality of crudeness, and a 
sign of imperfection. It belongs to anarchy rather than 
authority ; to declamation instead of argument, As illus- 
trated in individual life, it pertains to the period of the 
passions, and to the lower development of character. 
Boisterous activity is the fitting expression of childhood ; 
the demand of predominating and unfolding nature ; and 
the control of sensual impressions is evident in hot energy 
and emphatic gesticulation. But the strength of true 
manhood, when deep springs of experience have opened 
within, when wisdom has bound its cincture about the 
forehead, and when the soul has the clear vision of faith 
and prayer, is indicated by a majestic repose. This is the 
idea of power expressed in the highest art, — not the 
awful front of Jupiter, nor the exuberance of Apollo, nor 
in any salient virtue even ; but the calm rapture of the 
martyr looking upward from the fire ; the face of Jesus 
crowned with thorns. And when one has reached that 
degree of spiritual attainment in which appetite is chained 
and passion controlled : when love, which is the highest 
attribute, the very essence of God, has become transfused 
through one's being, so that he can forbear, and forgive, 
yea, even pray for an enemy; when his vision has become 
so steady and clear as to God's workings and his provi- 
dence that he can meet all the stings and sorrows of life 



322 LIVING WORDS, 

with submission, and overcome them with trust, — it is 
only through labor, — through long conflict and great 
spiritual energy ; and there is no higher manifestation of 
human power. 



I do not want any of that kind of respect for the 
clergyman that will check a man from swearing in his 
presence : " Ah, I beg pardon ; I see there is a minister 
present. 7 ' Never beg my pardon for swearing. If you 
don't care about offending God you need not trouble your- 
self about offending me. 0, this miserable, mean kind 
of respect that is felt for the mere formalities and decen- 
cies of religion, when Jesus Christ is turned out of doors ! 



Those who haye moved the world's heart, and changed 
the aspects of humanity — the apostles of truth and of love 
— have acted strenuously ; yet their real life was not in 
action, but endurance. They learned to overcome them- 
selves, — to endure as well as to hope all things ; and 
thus were enabled to act powerfully upon others. Within 
themselves they nourished the still seeds of thought in the 
sunshine of reason and with the dew of prayer. 



Is there anything so wretched to look at as a man of 
fine abilities doing nothing? 



LIVING WORDS. 323 

Men differ in strength and capacity of heart ; so that 
some men are distinguished by the fact that in all calami- 
ties, in all trials, they gather out of their hearts the re- 
sources of a new and better life It is just like a perpetual 
spring within them. If one form of contemplated good 
perishes, if one hope drops away, if one resource fails, 
down they go, down into their hearts again, and call up 
something else. A great, strong heart is never overcome. 
It finds its own resources, and falls back into its own pos- 
sibilities. It is sad to find a man who says " I have no 
heart;" to see a forlorn creature who says "I have 
no power to struggle any more." But as long as there is 
no blight or taint the power, the possibility of the man 
is left. There was our gifted historian,^ who died so 
suddenly the other day. See how that physical calamity 
which occurred to him in his early years would have af- 
fected some men. They would have crouched literally by 
the way-side of life ; and even if they had had that man's 
powers they would have made their calamity an excuse 
for a life of idleness and waste. How was it with him ? 
He fell back into his own great and noble heart, and out 
of it he brought up new life, which became to him a 
strength and power that perhaps he never would have ex- 
hibited had not that misfortune happened to him. But 
for that he might have been a scholar, or, much worse, a 

* Prescott, 



324 LIVING WOltDS. 

politician ; but the twilight of almost total blindness hav- 
ing fallen on him, he called up those powers and concen- 
trated them upon the great work of history ; and when 
building up this historical structure — just as an architect 
builds up a great cathedral, like that at Cologne, standing 
forth majestic and glorious — he profited by the very ca- 
lamity that excluded him from other pursuits and aims. 
Yea, and with a still nobler spirit, when others lamented 
his calamity, and sought to condole with him in his mis- 
fortune, he sang songs in the night, and spoke noble words 
of cheer and encouragement. Now, I say it was not out 
of the intellect, but out of a noble and faithful heart 
streamed forth that beautiful life which made this man 
one of the stars in the constellation of our literature. 



The soul possessed with endurance appears as* we have 
seen the moon on a gusty night, — gliding amidst rack 
and shadow, yet brightening the clouds through which it 
passes ; and ever and anon sailing upward, with a calm 
sorrow on its face, into clear spaces of the sky. 



The great power of the gospel to me is its immediate 
application to my wants, to my soul's life, to my best de- 
sires, to my immortal prospects. That is the everlasting 
verification of it to me. 



LIVING WORDS. 325 

These restless Yv r heels of nature — this toil and travail 
of humanity — have an end beyond themselves. Were 
the working of things fitful and uncertain we might infer 
otherwise. But this vast machinery of change, bound 
about with eternal unehangeableness, — this incessant 
moving to and fro, — this steady swing of order, now and 
always, — indicates design ; reveals a power and a plan, 
by which and for which it moves. .... 

Surely, all this movement — this regular working — is 
not aimless. The sun climbing and descending his daily 
path, the wind sailing in its circuit, the waters drawn up 
into the atmosphere and poured back into the sea, — these 
valves and arteries of force do not confirm a dreary scepti- 
cism, but they suggest faith in the spiritual energy which 
moves them, and in the moral ends for w T hich they move. 

If we would but clear our eyes, and gaze with fresh 
vision up into the night, this very routine of obedient, 
silent nature — this incessant roll of worlds — itself 
would suggest a high destiny, — a great object in life, — - 
something far beyond the indulgence of the flesh or the 
limits of the grave. 



It is better to sell to the intemperate than to the sober, 
— to the degraded than to the respectable, — -for the same 
reason that it is better to burn up an old hulk than to set 
fire to a new and splendid ship. 

28 



326 LIVING WORDS* 

What should we do in times of civil discord and political 
corruption 3 — in hours when truth is shamed, when righte- 
ousness is balked, and rampant and violent wrong stalks 
in our midst, — if we did not believe that the kingdom of 
God is yet to come through all changes and over all oppo- 
sition ? As sure as there is a God, it is to come. It is to 
manifest itself in a sweeter love, in a broader truth, and 
in a more radical righteousness* 



There is not a result in science which does not rest 
upon faith. There is not a trophy in the material world, 
without faith in the New Testament sense — confidence— 

back of it Here are the ships which breast the 

ocean's foam 3 and toss the Atlantic into diamonds of spray, 
freighted with commerce ; and this is practical. It is not 
searching into an old, musty theology for visionary views. 
It is practical. Very well; what does it rest upon? Con- 
fidence, — trust. If you do not trust the man yonder at 
the end of the world — in China or Japan — snap goes 
the thread of commerce. If you do not trust your neigh- 
bor in Broadway or Wall-street, away goes your inter- 
communication. If you believe every man you meet to 
be cheating you, what kind of a social life should you 
have? Everything rests upon faith the same as in the 
New Testament — confidence. 



LIVING WORDS. 327 

Sorrow itself suggests something better. Common ex- 
perience will testify that affliction does not fall upon us as 
a final blow ; not as an end but as an agent ; oping for us 
new springs of consciousness and of power. Life assumed 
a greater meaning for yonder mother — her soul became 
a more eloquent interpreter — -when that babe first rested 
in her arms ; and reflected indefinable love and wonder 
into her eyes. But still more grand became the meaning 
of existence — still more emphatic the oracle of her soul 
— when that innocence and beauty were taken from her 
sight. For then she felt the deathlessness of affection ; 
then she became assured of immortality. 

And for how many does sorrow break up the surface 
of life, like a strong plough-share, and lay open those 
depths which are hidden by the calmness of pros- 
perity ! . . . . Through its ministry there comes a pro- 
founder vision, more solemn but nobler thoughts, and the 
blossoming of better hopes. The exposure of finite weak- 
ness lets in the concption of the infinite. The sense of 
dependence leads us to God. In fact, the touch of afflic- 
tion awakens a feeling of the supernatural. In its pres- 
ence frivolity grows still, and the worst men think of 
prayer. 



In this world the disposition to do things is of more 
consequence than the mere power* 



n 



28 LIVING WORDS. 



If we give to this life of ours only a material interpre- 
tation. — such an interpretation as thousands practically 
do give, — then the entire mechanism of things is an in- 
explicable monotony. 



If we estimate things by a spiritual standard a man's 
earthly being may contain more than all the cycles of the 
material world. From the best point of view, life is not 
merely a term of years and a span of action ; it is a force, 
— a current and depth of being. .... Has not each 
one of us at times realized that he lived a year in a single 
day, — in a moment, — in an emotion or thought ? Nay, 
could the experience be measured by any estimate of time ? 
And if we should compute the length of any life by such 
experiences, and not by a succession of years, would it not 
be a long life ? At least, would it not be a full and im- 
measurable life ? 



I find in one of our papers a grievous complaint 
because some rum-seller has set up a portrait of Wash- 
ington in his bar-room; and it is called a desecration. 
So it may be; but is there not a greater desecration 
there ? Is there not a desecration of the image of God 
set up among those rum-casks and liquor-barrels ? The 
image of God there becomes degraded, polluted, and cast 
down. 



LIVING WORDS. 329 

Books ! — the chosen depositories of the thoughts, 
the opinionSj and the aspirations of mighty intellects; 
— like wondrous mirrors that have caught and fixed 
bright images of souls that have passed away ; — like 
magic lyres, whose masters have bequeathed them to the 
world, and which yet, of themselves, ring with unforgot- 
ten music, while the hands that touched their chords have 
crumbled into dust. Books ! — they are the embodi- 
ments and manifestations of departed minds, — the living 
organs through which those who are dead yet speak to us. 
Books ! — they are the garners in which are stored the 
wisdom bought by toil and study, — the gorgeous dreams 
of the poet, the maxims of the philosopher, the skilful de- 
lineations of the true observer, the histories of mighty 
deeds, the wonders of distant lands, the records, of precious 
facts, — the messengers which the wise and the good send 
to us, laden with treasures for every mental want, and 
precepts for every duty. 



The man we read of, whose personality is so hidden in 
dirt that the assessors rate him as real estate^ — the man 
who beats the feat of writing the Ten Commandments in- 
side the circumference of a dime, and gets the Law and 
the Prophets, the Decalogue, New Testament and all, a 

great ways inside of a ten-cent piece, — such men do not 

i 
live* 

28* 



330 LIVING WORDS. 

The autumn-season of the year and of human life are 
alike from the hand of God ; and a beneficent purpose un- 
folds itself through all these passages of change. We 
know that the first, notwithstanding its melancholy and 
decay, discharges a beneficial office in the economy of 
things, — presenting the fruits of the earth for ingather- 
ing, affording to nature a period of recovery, and in its 
work of desolation preparing for new life and beauty. 
And surely it is thus in our mortal lot. In the entire 
circle of being, death is an inevitable yet transitional pro- 
cess. Go forth now into the w r oods and the fields, w T here 
with a strange stillness nature is passing through glory to 
decay, and think of the autumn-seasons of this world, and 
all that pertains to it, from the cycles of the ancient earth 
to the perishing stubble and the dying leaf. Think of 
the forms of beauty, the expressions of love, the symbols 
of power, that have budded, and ripened, and gathered to 
themselves attractiveness and splendor, and sunk away. 
Think of the empires that have overshadowed the earth, 
as the forests overshadow the hills, but whose brilliance 
and refinement, like the pomps of October, were the sym- 
bols of a waning glory, and whose dead trunks and rot- 
tin o- folia se now lie scattered around the dim shores of 
Time. Think of the relentless process that has stopped 
the sap of enterprise, and shook down the clustered 
trophies of the great. Think of the generations of the 
earth gathered in like harvests. Think of the old inevi- 



LIVING WORDS* 331 

lability pressing upon the tenderest relationships of life, 
— snatching here a half-opened flower, and plucking 
there a ripened sheaf, — until all went back to dust, and 
strangers occupied the forsaken hearth-stone. Think of 
the individual man slipping from the hey-day of youth 
into the sober fulness of maturity ; and then the hope, and 
the enjoyment, and the intense hold of life, in a rustling, 
crackling feebleness all whirled away. See how every 
sphere of earth has its autumn-seasons ; but see, also, how 
these are merely transitional passages of decay leading to 
renovation. In the place of vanished splendor rise fresher 
glories ; out from the mould of empires grows a better 
civilization ; the heaped graves of generations are the fur- 
rows of a wider, grander life; and new affections, new 
sanctities come to bless the earth and take the place of 
the departed. 



The largest love is that which probes tho very heart it 
loves, — pierces the very depths of the soul to which it is 
attracted, and shows to it the evil within it. 



There are interests by the sacrifice of which peace is 
too dearly purchased. One should never be at peace to 
the shame of his own soul, — to the violation of his in- 
tegrity or of his allegiance to God, 



332 LIVING WORDS. 

INTO what boundless life does education admit us, and 
the discoveries of every day, and the ordinary lessons of 
the world ! Tell me, is this life to be called merely a 
brief and worthless fact, when by a little reading, for 
instance, I can make the experience of other men, and 
lands, and ages all mine? When in some favored hour 
I can climb the starry galaxy with Newton, and pace 
along the celestial coast to the great harmony of numbers, 
and unlock the mighty secret of the universe? When 
of a winter's night I can pass through all the belts of 
climate, and all the grades of civilization on our globe ; 
scan its motley races, learn its diverse customs, and hear 
the groaning of lonely ice-fields and the sigh of Indian 
palms ? When with Bacon I can explore the laboratory 
of nature, or with Locke consult the mysteries of the 
soul? When Spencer can lead me into golden visions, 
or Shakspeare smite me with magic inspiration, or Milton 
bathe me in immortal song? When History opens for 
me all the gates of the past, — Thebes and Palmyra, 
Corinth and Carthage, Athens with its peerless glory, 
and Rome with its majestic pomp? When kings and 
statesmen, authors and priests, with their public deeds 
and secret thoughts, are mine ? When the plans of cabi- 
nets, and the debates of parliaments, and the course of 
revolutions, and the results of battle are all before my 
eyes, and in my mind? When I can enter the inner 
chamber of sainted souls, and conspire with the efforts of 



LIVING WORDS. 333 

moral heroes, and understand the sufferings of martyrs ? 
Say, "when all these deep experiences — these compre- 
hensive truths — may be acquired through merely one 
privilege, is life but a dream, or a breath of air? Thus, 
too, do immeasurable experiences flow in to me from 
nature, — from planet, flower, and ocean. Thus, too, 
does more life come to me from contacts in the common 
round of action. And I repeat, every truth thus gained 
expands a moment of time into illimitable being, — posi- 
tively enlarges my existence, and endows me with a qual- 
ity which time cannot weaken or destroy. 



A peevish sensitiveness to the sayings and doings of 
others indicates real poverty of soul or miserable timidity, 
or else a spirit which is mastered by the body, and lies at 
the mercy of diseased and jangling nerves. 



Men sometimes, in their eagerness to act, act too far, 
— act by wrong motives ; and in their impatient fussi- 
ness overlook the processes of God, and the harmonious 
working of all things. It is a great thing, very often, to 
be patient ; — not to talk much about it, not to try to do 
much about it, but to wait and trust. And this is all, 
sometimes, that we can do, 



334 LIVING WORDS. 

The evening of the day possesses many advantages for 
meditation. The objects that are upon the earth are then 
growing dim and passing into shadow; and with them 
may well fall away all our secular images. The most 
familiar things assume strange aspects, and the darkness 
slowly swallows them up. How suggestive this of the 
unsubstantiolity of those forms to which we cling, of the 
superficial acquaintanceship there is between us, of the iso- 
lation in which as spirits we really stand, and of the mys- 
tery all around and w T ithin us ! And how vividly then 
can we realize that there is but One in whom we live, and 
move, and have our being ! In the mean time the veil of 
day is withdrawn from the firmament, and innumerable 
worlds break upon our vision. How does this revelation of 
immensity increase our conception of him who bounds and 
fills it all, — who has sown abroad those worlds of light, 
and shown forth his handiwork in those glittering constel- 
lations ! The objects which we see by day, to be sure — 
the varied forms of earth — declare him : the mountain, 
the ocean, the way-side weed. But with these we are 
more familiar. They do not illustrate his attributes, and 
shadow forth the majesty of his being so strikingly as 
this spectacle of the heavens. In that sublime architect- 
ure we can best discern his infinite wisdom and his di- 
vine skill. From that vast space, all peopled with being 
and blessed with light, we may guess how inexhaustible 
is hi3 benevolence and how extensive his care. In those 



LIVING WORDS. 335 

serene depths, those steady orbs, we have a symbol of his 
own calm eternity overhanging all our transient forms. 
In that procession of stars, that seeming irregularity of 
orbits, reconciled, however, by a higher law, and produc- 
ing most beautiful results, we see, as it were, the stupen- 
dous march of his providence, and the sure though 
immense cycle of his purposes. And considering these 
glories as but the lamps of his throne, the upholstery of 
his pavilion, the material veils of his pure essence, how 
awful must be our sense of his holiness, how deep our 
feeling of humility, upon this little earthly atom of mor- 
tality and sin ! But if, lost in this unfathomable vision, 
we think he is far from us, and heeds us not, the reflec- 
tion of that ray of light from its far distant source into 
our uplifted eyes, the soft touch of the night- wind com- 
ing we know not whence, should convince us that he is 
closer to us than any outward thing, and numbers all the 
hairs of our head. 



The shadow of the night also strikes a shadow upon 
the dial of our life, and every evening falls upon the 
figure of a later hour. As the wise merchant, then, 
posts his books at night, and knows the state of his for- 
tune, so will the wise man at the close of the day sum 
up the account of life, and scrutinize his doings and 
relations. 



33G LIVING WORDS. 

As to the spiritual life of man, — the real, substantial 
life which man is placed in this world to live, — I sup- 
pose that Abraham on the plains of Mamre, and the old 
patriarchs who had no steamboats, and railroads, and bal- 
loons, nor any of our modern facilities which we glorify 
in such sparkling terms, got really as near to God, in 
the heart and essence of true life, as we do, and as men 
ever will in any age. 



It would be very singular if this great elastic shad-net 
of the law did not enable men to catch at something balk- 
ing for the time the eternal flood-tide of justice. 

The brightest lineaments of woman's character ap- 
pear as the shadows of life grow darker. In hours of 
sickness, in homes of pain, in weary vigils she rises with a 
sublime fortitude. The spirit that shrinks with sensitive- 
ness in calmer moments gives out rich music in the storm. 
When impending danger, pitiless calumny, or cruel perse- 
cution assails the object of her affection, she gathers her 
virtue around her for a shield, and with a power that 
makes the weak things of the earth stronger than the 
mighty, and lends to the timid a bravery that defies all 
peril, she goe3 forth to share his fortune to the last, ex- 
hibiting a constancy that is more eloquent than words, 
and a love that cannot die. 



LIVING WORDS. 337 

Alas for that man who keeps always in the bustle of 
life, — who knows nothing of his own soul, and never 
stops to reflect upon the highest realities ! Alas for him, 
also, in this world of infinite relations, who never looks 
upward, but confines his gaze to the earth ; who, placed 
amid solemn mysteries, never questions about life, or 
death, or God, or eternity, but suffers the sheen of ma- 
terial interests to obscure the stars, and drowns the still, 
small voice of Heaven with the jingling of his harness and 
the clank of his labor ! Alas for him who, launched upon 
this sea of life, lies becalmed upon its w T aters — easy, self- 
content — or drifts unreckoning before the wind, but who 
never changes his tack or adjusts his methods, because he 
takes no celestial observation, and knows not the science 
of his voyage ! 



We only attain the true idea of marriage when we 
consider it as a spiritual union, — a union of immortal 
affections, of undying faculties, of an imperishable des- 
tiny. 



It is one of the grand results of modern science that 
it not only reveals its own harmony with religion, but it 
also demonstrates the essential religiousness of the physi- 
cal world.- It shows us that every work which God has 
made is holy, and not to be despised. 
29 



338 LIVING WORDS. 

The evening of life is peculiarly appropriate for medi- 
tation. There are those who are spared to an age that is 
well expressed by this term. A shadow is upon their 
eyesight and upon their memory. A shadow is lengthen- 
ing before them, — the shadow of fast-coining death. 
The order of their thoughts indicates an evening position. 
The nearest things are but dimly seen and quickly van- 
ish, while they behold in clear prominence their earliest 
and remotest years; like the departing sunshine, which 
shows last what it saluted first, and lingers upon the dis- 
tant summit while the near valley lie3 in darkness. Old 
age is an evening. The day-time of life is passed, — the 
hours of labor are over. And how beautiful that evening 
is when clothed with the serenity of virtue ! To be sure, 
melancholy thoughts will naturally steal in, a^hey do in 
the evening of the day. When the old man reviews his 
conduct in the mellow light of experience he detects many 
an imperfection which he would now avoid. He mourns 
over many a downfall of which he thought too lightly in 
the hot pursuit of life. He wonders at the presumption 
with which he was once cheated in the name of knowledge 
and bravery. In this rectifying hour, too, he discovers 
how his energies have been too much invigorated by self- 
ishness, too little animated by love. Indeed none so 
clearly as he discerns how short a time we have to love 
in, as well as to hope and to labor. How swiftly, like 
shadows, in that evening hour, pass before his vision the 



LIVING WORDS. 339 

friends of his youth ! How vividly, though all else has 
grown dim, do those familiar faces gaze upon him ! How 
distinctly stand up those gray and silent stones that mark 
the spots in his journey where they dropped and died ! 
How impressively, in that evening hour, with its last 
murmurs falling upon his ear, does life appear like a tale 
that is told ! And yet to that old man the evening of life 
brings the evening's consolations — rest and hope; rest 
from the toils of this world's to-day, hope from the re- 
sources of the everlasting to-morrow. The most of his 
friends have fallen asleep around him, and he is willing 
to lie down with them. And though the things of earth 
are vanishing from him, and the noise of the world breaks 
solemnly at his feet, as at evening breaks the murmur of 
the graj*and retreating sea, lo ! above him is outspread 
a celestial canopy ; and all that was best in his lot, wor- 
thiest his love and his faith, is gathered up there in im- 
mortal constellations. 



The cry of degeneracy is the oldest of cries. Take up 
any London journal of a hundred years ago, and you will 
find remonstrances and satires against the same follies and 
vices as those which are denounced to-day. Therefore 
these parallel cases in our time show us, not that we are 
going into the swamp, but that we have not yet got out 
of it. 



340 LIVING WORDS. 

Why is there such an abundance of beauty ? We can 
conceive of a world destitute of it. We can argue no 
special need why the leaves before they die should take 
the hues of the rainbow. They might shrink at once into 
their yellow shrouds and fall. We find no reason, in the 
necessity of things, why our atmosphere should be thronged 
with such gorgeous tints as those which gather at the 
gates of sunset. In all this there is nothing which we 
can convert into food, or clothing, or money. And yet 
something in us responds to it. We will rear flowers 
because they are beautiful, and gaze long upon a land- 
scape because it thrills us with delight. Doubtless, 
then, God has a purpose, through these, to awaken in 
us pleasures that the dust and drudgery of . life cannot 
yield, and to train us for regions where we shall never 
grow weary nor bow down to mourn ; — where there are 
treasures of joy not involved with earthly vicissitude, 
and manifestations of beauty which the soul can ap- 
prehend only when it has thrown off its mortal veils. 
And so, even now, the misanthrope's philosophy and the 
fanatic's creed are rebuked. The world is not dreary. 
There are bars of sunlight upon it; there are revela- 
tions of beauty in it; and through changeful phases 
and alternating seasons runs the Creator's purpose, 
by these agencies, to win us to know and to love him 
better. 



LIVING WORDS. 341 

Christianity converses with the third heaven, and 
opens the great prospect of the immortal world, but makes 
earth the platform of its teachings, the theatre of its 
efforts. 



Feeling after God, if haply they may find him. That 
is what all nations have been doing long before Christ, 
and what all nations in darkness and unbelief are forever 
doing. Every prayer put, up, however blindly uttered, 
however superstitiously conceived, is a feeling after God ; 
and every breath of altar-flame and every sacrifice has 
been a feeling after God and for him. Out of this pri- 
mary conviction of God in our nature all the religions of 
the world have started ; and therefore we realize, even in 
heathenism, this primary conviction of the reality of the 
truth of one God, and thus get rid of an atheism which is 
not natural to man. 



There is no happiness in life, there is no misery, like 
that growing out of the dispositions which consecrate or 
desecrate a home. 



The sluices of the grog-shop are fed from the wine- 
glasses in the parlor ; and there is a lineal descent from the 
gentleman who hiccoughs at his elegant dinner-table to 
the sot who makes a bed of the gutter. 
28* 



342 LIVING WORDS. 

Two gifts God has bestowed on us that have in them- 
selves no guilty trait, and show an essential divineness. 
Music is one of them, which seems as though it were never 
born of earth, but lingers with us from the gates of heaven. 
Music which breathes over the gross, or sad, or doubting 
heart, to inspire it with a consciousness of its most mys- 
terious affinities, and to touch the chords of its unde- 
veloped, unsuspected life. And the other gift is that of 
flowers, which, though born of earth, we may well believe 
— if anything of earthly soil grows in that higher realm, 
if any of its methods are continued, if any of its forms are 
identical there — will live on the banks of the River of 
Life. Flowers, that in all our gladness, in all our sorrow, 
are never incongruous — always appropriate. Appropri- 
ate in the church, as expressive of its purest and most 
social themes, and blending their sweetness with the in- 
cence of prayer. Appropriate in the joy of the marriage 
hour, in the loneliness of the sick-room, and crowning with 
prophecy the foreheads of the dead. They give complete- 
ness to the associations of childhood, and are appropriate 
even by the side of old age, strange a3 their freshness con- 
trasts with the wrinkles and the gray hairs ; for still they 
are suggestive, they are symbolical of the soul's perpetual 
youth, — the inward blossoming of immortality, — the 
amaranthine crown. In their presence we feel that when 
the body shall drop as a withered calyx the soul shall go 
forth as a winged seed. 



LIVING WORDS. 343 

Home is the seminary of all other institutions. There 
are the roots of all public prosperity, the foundations of 
the State j the germs of the church. There is all that in 
the child makes the future man; all that in the man 
makes the good citizen. 



We see the western sky, when the sun is up, sending 
up its clear reflections, and every building and steeple 
stands out clearly and distinct. And so the sky and the 
horizon of the nineteenth century has a clear reflection of 
intellectual light thrown upon it, and every ghastly wrong, 
every forbidden error, every formidable evil stands right 
up against it. Because we see more clearly now we say 
there is more wrong. But that is a very doubtful, if not 
a very erroneous conclusion. The conclusion should rather 
be that the very intellectual progress and the diffused 
knowledge of w T hich we speak have made the evil more 
apparent ; and that is one step toward subduing and over- 
coming evil. 



Like Peter on the wave, we walk along in life very 
well so long as we look to God, or to Christ, the image 
of God ; but the moment we begin to think of ourselves — 
of our perils, and dangers, and sacrifices — that moment 
we begin to sink. 



344 LIVING WORDS. 

Ethnologies may break up rnonkind into a dozen 
tribes, each with distinct progenitors; and though the 
earth be striped all over with diversities of color, shape, 
capacity, condition, the conviction only deepens, till it be- 
comes the tritest of doctrines, that this wide banyan-tree 
of ranks and races has one deep root, one central stream 
of life, one -human heart. In this fact we feel more and 
more the claim of every man, — in the fact that he pos- 
sesses this capable and mysterious heart. We ask for no 
other sign. We care not what limitation of intellect, 
what degradation of morals may be found, what analo- 
gies may be detected between something lower than man 
and he. Here is the only question we ask : Does he 
love, and fear, and hope, and pray with the common 
ground-swell of humanity ? Show us the poor Indian 
woman who lays down her child in the woods, and folds 
the little palms together, — kisses the dumb lips that 
will never prattle more. Show us the slave mother, 
hounded, fang-torn, with revolvers cracking behind her, 
and the rolling flood before, holding in her lacerated 
hands her babe close to her breast, with a grasp that only 
death can loosen ; — and in this spectecle there is that 
which climbs over all castes and bulwarks, enters radiant 
and perfumed homes, transmutes all distinctions, and 
strikes straight into humanity, with that "one touch 
which makes the whole world kin." 



LIVING WORDS. 345 

I think you may doubt the authority of any creed, of 
any faith, which requires you to be a philosopher before 
you can understand it ; — any creed which is so meta- 
physical that the common mind cannot receive it. That 
is the great objection to Galvanism, Before you can com- 
prehend the scheme of salvation of that church you must 
become a man of considerable intellect. But the central 
truth of God the Father — a child can take it in. Some- 
times when I stand by the dying bed, the ear is growing 
deaf from the booming waves of eternity, so that but a few 
w T ords here and there can reach it ; but I can shove out 
one plank to the dying man, — " One God, the Father ;" 
and with that he can take the sweep of the sea of eternity. 
It is a great truth to be embosomed in the heart of man. 
Some men believe this for themselves. That is not the 
Christian doctrine. You must go further than that. It 
is one God, the Father of all. When you pray, " Our 
Father," remember it docs not mean your Father espe- 
cially, but our Father, the Father of all humanity. 



There is a necessity for setting apart one day in seven 
for religious thought, meditation, and religious action 
generally, in order that we may have a reservoir, so to 
speak, by which to w T ater and sprinkle the other six days 
in the week. 



346 LIVING WORDS, 

No, not less knowledge, but more knowledge, to expose 
the evil, to condemn the shame and abominations of the 
time. More knowledge, mated in its essence with God's 
everlasting love, exalting in its revealing splendors the 
immutable law, until men shall learn the fatal incompati- 
bility of sin with any good, until the golden scales shall 
be shivered from their eyes, until their hands shall be un- 
manacled from all mean policy, and to know and to do 
shall be as the arterial unity of brain-throb and heart- 
beat. Silent is the force which controls the material 
world, sure and relentless as its burning wheels. And so 
flow r on, flow wide, unfolding truth and knowledge of the 
times ! Shine, genial as the sunlight, terrible as the 
lightning, until wrong shall shrivel, and selfishness be put 
to open §hame ! Shine into the crannies of this strange 
old world, — into its mould, and rust, and rot ! Shine, 
until indifference grows warm, and prejudices burn away, 
and for our pity and indignation we shall see all fetters 
and tear-stains, and sorrows ! Shine straight through 
our brother's rags, our brother's uncouthness, our broth- 
er's nationality, until we discern the same natures, the 
same heart, the same red blood as our own ! Shine, 
bright and beautiful, in toleration and comprehensiveness, 
giving hope to the future and significance to the past, like 
the sunlight, which, streaming through cathedral win- 
dows, kindles up the features of heroes and martyrs, 
and reflects their expression upon the living crowds be- 



LIVING WORDS, 347 

low ! Warmly shine, until liberty shall grow as every 
man's vine . and fig-tree, and the tendrils of sympathy, 
running by every creek, and carried by every ship, shall 
be rolled around the globe ! And then if, with all this, 
man proves worse, we shall be sure that knowledge will 
not make him so, but show him so. 



You would feel that it was a great thing to stand upon 
the walls of a lonely fort, with your country's flag floating 
over you, knowing, perhaps, that your country's freedom 
depended upon your vigilant eye and quick ear. You 
would think it a great thing to stand upon the deck of a 
ship, keeping watch at night, knowing that the safety of 
all those on board depended upon your alertness and ac- 
tivity. Stand at the portals of your own soul, with the 
signal-flag of God's law floating over you, and feel what 
important results depend upon your care and watchful- 
ness ; stand upon the deck of the great social ship, watch- 
ing the interests committed to you, and feel how much 
depends upon you. Drive every nail you drive, do every- 
thing you do, however small and insignificant, as though 
God's eye was flashing upon you. 



No great truth bursts upon man without having its 
hemisphere of darkness and sorrow. 



348 LIVING WORDS. 

AVe hear people talk of correct notions of Christianity. 
What do their notions amount to ? What is their Chris- 
tianity, -with those notions they hold ? It is like an imi- 
tation of fruit that we see carved in stone : it is an exact 
imitation to the eye, but it is impossible to bite it, and it 
is without juice. It is made to look at, — to arrange in 
a cabinet, — * to set on a mantlepiece ; but beyond that, of 
no manner of use. And how many believers there are 
who are only stony fruit, — imitations of Christianity, 
without any juice in them. They have very correct 
notions of Christianity : they are very sound, —just as 
sound as a stone apple or peach, — and just as hard. 
They set their stern, flinty faces against lax sentiment, 
and all those infidel notions that they tell us are rife and 
prevalent at the present time. You find no class of men 
so rampant against what they call heresy as this class of 
stony, hard b^ievers, whose whole power of Christianity 
consists in correct notions. Every man who does not 
come up to the line of their creed is an infidel. The 
name has almost become honorable in this way; for a 
great many who are called infidels are simply men who 
are searching for the spirit and truth of religion, and 
they believe in Christ as that spirit and truth ; and if you 
can make the essence of Christianity consist in spirit and 
truth, rather than in fact, they are nearer to Christ than 
a great many of those who hurl anathemas against them. 



LIVING WORDS. 349 

The philosopher can never convince us that our little 
earth is the only home of affection and intelligence like 
our own, and that the systems which burn and roll around 
us are only sparkling Saharas of incompleteness and deso- 
lation. No more can the historical sceptic make us be- 
lieve that the largest measure of knowledge is unfavorable 
to the noblest types of excellence, — that the richest vir- 
tues wilt in the brightest civilization. Argue as we will, 
our moral instincts, our faith in Providence assure us that 
knowledge tends to goodness. They are not identical, 
yet in their highest realization they are inseparable. 



Christianity is a spirit flowing through every chan- 
nel of action, — consecrating all we do, — making every 
day holy and every spot sacred. 



There are mysteries which 3 if they are not solved by 
the truths of Christianity, darken the universe. There 
are griefs w T hich, if we do not receive them as divine 
chastisements, are too much for our humanity. There 
are ties sundered here below which, if we do not hold 
immortal relations, are inexplicable. And nothing but 
the power of religion enables us to use our afflictions as 
the instruments of our spiritual advancement, — to con- 
vert the crown of thorns into a diadem of victory. 
30 



350 LIVING WORDS* 

It is a very singular fallacy, it seems to me, that takes 
the present condition of the world as the rectification of a 
mistake on the part of God, instead of being a develop- 
ment of his steadfast intention from the very first until 
now. 



We live in an order of circumstances where not an 
atom is insignificant. A pebble shakes the huge fabric 
of the universe. A leaf shudders in sympathy with the 
remotest constellations. If we act we touch the spring 
of an endless consequence; if we refuse to do anything 
our negation circulates itself. If we move we quicken 
the pulses of the common being; if we stand still we 
poison the air or enrich the soil. 



The worst manifestation of a bad spirit is joy in the 
fall of another, — joy when sin prevails, — joy when a 
brother trips and stumbles into ruin. 



The material and the spiritual are not in the here and 
the hereafter, but in the senses and the soul. When 
Christ made the distinction between the temporal and 
the eternal it was not between what is now and to be 
hereafter, but the distinction of quality. 



LIVING WORDS. 351 

There is an upward joy that blessed spirits feel when 
another spirit becomes blessed. It is the joy of redeemed 
souls when others have become redeemed. It is the joy 
of those who have fought the good fight and achieved tho 
victory when others come drenched, as it may be, with 
the blood of their wounds, but saved and delivered. It is 
a joy that flows from earth to heaven. As there is light 
in the morning that goes shimmering up the clear upper 
sky, so there is a light that goes shimmering up to the 
white robes of the blessed, making their crowns brighter, 
when the faces of the penitent are upturned in prayer. 
As when the breath of the summer air begins to stir the 
leaves of the forest they all shiver and lift themselves 
with rejoicing, so when the soul of the penitent begins to 
move, — when the guilty heart turns from sin to Christ, 
— there goes forth a breath, an impulse, higher and 
higher, deeper and deeper, stronger and stronger, until it 
becomes a sweet hallelujah sweeping all round the courts 
of heaven. 



Do not make personal beauty a boast or an idol. 
Do not set your heart upon it. Would you treasure 
up all your regards in a flower ? That frail plant ! — 
the next rude hand may snap it, to-morrow's burning ray 
may scorch it, the first frost may blight it, and leave you 
desolate. 



352 LIVING WORDS. 

There is one Volume which is greater than all other 
books ; which contains precepts that are to knowlege the 
base of the pyramid, the flame of the altar ; a Volume 
that is the sun in the system of truth, around which glide 
all the bright and beautiful' orbs of human wisdom ; while 
those that stray from its light wander darkly abroad, or 
glimmer and fade in the distance. 



No one can rank so high in the scale of mental excel- 
lence that it will be a letting down of his dignity to guide 
and inform any of his fellow-creatures. 



If Napoleon — pointing to the tall and mystic pyra- 
mids — could say to his army, "Lo! fifty centuries look 
down upon your deeds," —young men of America, of 
you it may be said that fifty unborn generations abide the 
issue of your works. 



" Our life is what we make it!" — an insignificant 
game or a noble trial ; a dream or a reality ; a play of 
the senses worn out in selfish use, and flying " swifter 
than a weaver's shuttle," or an assension of the soul, by 
daily duties and unfaltering faith, to more spiritual rela- 
tions and to loftier toils, — to the company of the immor- 
tal, —to the presence of God and the fellowship of Christ. 



LIVING WORDS. 353 

The Psalms of David are the thought of to-day and 
forever. They are the hymns ; the prayers, the confes- 
sions, the sublime meditations of men in the nineteenth 
century, and right here in the city of New York, as of 
the men in Judea three thousand years ago. 



The true idea of Christianity is help from God, freely 
given ; the sympathy of God, flowing out even unto the 
death on the cross, — trickling in the blood-drops from 
the thorn-torn brow and the pierced side of Jesus Christ. 



Christian ! the great revealing of life does not 
make life meaner, but grander. It does not make your 
work, your familiar home duties, of little consideration, 
but of great consideration. That is its beauty. It is like 
our modern astronomy, which, while it reveals the little- 
ness of the earth, reveals its grand connections, and shows 
it linked together in a grand chain of being. 



There is a sweet anguish springing up in our bosoms 
when a child's face brightens under the shadow of the 
waiting angel. There is an autumnal fitness when age 
gives up the ghost ; and when the saint dies there is a 
tearful victory. 

30* 



354 LIVING WORDS. 

Not only is music a beautiful and sublime science, the 
study of which ennobles and purifies the mind of its votary, 
but how many and excellent are its ministries to others ! 
It occupies hours that else, perhaps, they would employ 
sinfully. It wins them from low and sensual pursuits. 
It fills the home with melody, and helps recreation and 
social intercourse. It breaks into the monotony of life 
with a kindling enthusiasm, and interrupts the weary 
periods of anxiety and toil. It soothes the dull pauses of 
disease; it twines its magic spell around the fevered heart; 
it steals into the troubled spirit with uplifting and with 
peace. Its harmonies drop through the gloom of confine- 
ment like links of sunshine, and draw us up to the canopy 
of the free and unbounded heaven. It is the key of mem- 
ory and the messenger of hope, awaking us to all that is 
dear in the past, and all that is worthy in the future. 
For in its sweetest and loftiest moods music is eminently 
a moral and religious agent. It touches our best feelings, 
rebukes our sins, and confirms our virtues. It is the 
natural advocate of freedom, peace, and every sacred work. 
It is the best expression of faith and prayer. It moves 
like a magnetic current over our souls, and suggests our 
mysterious kindred with higher realities. 



The worst kind of Christian literature is the morbid 
analysis of Christian conscientiousness. 



LIVING WORDS. 355 

A breath upon the mirror, a stone in the brook, and 
the fair and seemly appearance that made them comely in 
the eyes of men is destroyed ; nay, there is not a star that 
walks in heaven but the least particle of cloud shall ren- 
der it rayless and hide its beauty. Breathe not even an 
idle word, then, much less a contrived aspersion, against 
that which to all honorable men is dearer than gems or 
gold. 

God is the explanation of things, and nothing but God, 
— the infinite God, the good God, the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 



The fire-brand which you unthinkingly wield may 
burn but a single stubble, but it is capable of enwrapping 
a city in flames. Therefore meddle with it not at all. 
So it is in regard to the principle that leads you from the 
strict path of integrity. 



The moment a man says, " I will not believe so and 
so, for I must go with the majority," then he would be, 
not a Presbyterian or a Roman Catholic, but a Buddhist ; 
for I believe they have a majority among the religious 
believers in the world ; and in the track of the majority he 
will go to any extreme, and believe in any error. 



356 LIVING WORDS. 

The truth of Christianity a man can carry in the palm 
of his hand, or close to his heart ; and yet it spreads out 
broad enough to cover all the necessities of this life, and 
opens a prospect wide as eternity. 



Most men are less afraid of ghosts than of facts ; but 
out of the truth of things — truth of character and vision 
— grows true life. We need not deplore the naturalistic 
spirit of our time. The development of the great natural 
agents gives the good man more to do. The fires of 
steam-shipsthat rise and dip far out on lonely seas herald 
a new era of faith and love. Increased knowledge is a 
conduit of fuller life. 



Christ stands close to all the hearts of poor, suffering, 
bleeding, tempted, dying humanity. Put no church, no 
creed, no symbol, between any man and Christ Jesus. 
He alone, filled with human experience, can fill all souls 
with his divine love. 



Peacefully and silently roll the chariot-wheels of 
salvation, and by the beat of every consecrated pulse, by 
the breath of every noble voice, by the strength of every 
brave, honest, heroic efiort, the kingdom of God is ad- 
vanced. 



LIVING WORDS, 357 

The popular sympathies are very apt to strike at tie 
core of truth. The people were right to spread their 
garments and cast their branches in the way of Jesus. 
Although a temporal form, it symbolized an eternal fact, 
that he was the king of the truth ; and the broad church 
sanctions it to-day and in all time. Come, men of sci- 
ence, bring your implements and cast them at his feet, 
and say, Thou art the centre of all that is beautiful 
and glorious in nature, and in the spiritual significance 
that comes from the Bible. Come, work in the field of 
humanity, and confess that your inspiration is in the truth 
of Jesus. Come, strong, thinking, brave, heroic races — 
come glorious hearts of all ages — down the mountain of 
time. Scatter the branches ; strew the garments at his 
feet. But, 0, yon lowly heart ! feeling the need of his 
truth, — feeling the penitence which his utterance against 
sin awakens, — feeling the comfort which his soothing 
words bestow, — you honor him better than all when you 
bring your heart and cast it at his feet. 



The creature you term a chattel, and affect to treat as 
an ape or a monkey, you do not treat as an ape or a 
monkey. When guilty of an immoral act you denounce 
him as guilty; you hold him morally responsible; and 
the very punishments you inflict refute your mean theo- 
ries of his being nothing more than a brute. 



35$ LIVING WORDS. 

The foundation of the kingdom of God is in the human 
soul ; and if the deep instincts of our nature reluct at any 
plank in the platform, you may be sure that that plank 
does not belong to Christianity. 



When evil comes to us, sorrows occur, calamities 
break in, they never come, or occur, or break in as the 
root and substance of things. Evil never stands before us 
as that which we discovered as seeming good ; but good 
often comes to us from that which we discovered as seem- 
ing evil. What seems to be exceptional, dark, and cruel, 
when further explained and placed in its true relations is 
brought into harmony with the great whole, and is trans- 
figured into a blessing. The dark fact, when we go 
deeper sends out veins of light. 



I should not like to preach to a congregation who all 
believed as I believe. I w T ould as lief preach to a basket 
of eggs, in their smooth compactness and oval formality. 



When truth comes it must speak by its own authority. 
There is no outside evidence greater than it. There is 
nothing that can more convince of its truthfulness than 
the truth itself. 



LIVING WORDS. 359 

Nature satisfies my thirst; it feeds my hunger; it 
finds me clothing; it affords me shelter; it wraps me 
around when I sleep with beneficent and watchful care ; 
and it takes me at last to its great bosom, where my ashes 
mingle with their kindred dust. These are not all of 
human wants : not in nightly sleep, in daily action, in the 
arms of death. There are deeper wants than these. 
There are capacities for endless progress, love which 
nothing can quench, a desire which mounts beyond the 
stars. Now, where nature fails to supply, Christianity 
comes in and takes up my higher wants and ministers to 
them, just as physical nature ministers to my lower order 
of wants. It is the other hemisphere to nature. Does 
not that indicate its origin that both are from one source ? 



There is nothing more disproportioned in humanity 
than a hard-hearted and ill-natured young man. 



Nature becomes interpreted when you set the cross of 
Christ in the centre of it. That divine, self-sacrificing 
love lights it all up, — illuminates it, — makes it some- 
thing new. Every star that shines in heaven receives a 
brighter significance in that, and every quivering of dim 
life that lies under the lenses of the microscope illustrates 
the great law of love and self-sacrifice. 



: ^0 LIVING WORDS. 

God never alters his methods. We may hurry our- 
selves, but we cannot hurry him. After all, the grass 
takes just as long to grow, and the oak-tree to develop, 
and the great processes of nature to unfold themselves. 
And we may be sure that just so much effort must go to 
just so much result. The great laws of God must be 
obeyed, or the rewards which follow the obedience of 
those laws will not come. 



" In like manner will he come again." How ? Calmly, 
serenely, gradually — as he rose into heaven — so, calmly, 
serenely, gradually will Christ come again; come in the 
slow progress of ages in the world ; come in the triumph 
of every truth ; come in the victory over every falsehood ; 
come in every right that shall lift up its long-scarred and 
abused head ; — so will he come to the world. And to 
you he comes in every influence that leads you to him ; 
in everything that makes you more like him ; in every- 
thing that causes you to exalt his law in your heart, and 
to surrender your lives to his will. Serenely, calmly, 
within, Christ comes to each of us, and gradually, even 
as he went up into heaven. 



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